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E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 
AND  COMPANY 

A  History 


E.  I.  DUPONT  DE  NEMOURS 
AND  COMPANY 

A  HISTORT 
1802-1902 

BY 

B.  G.  DuPONT 

With  Illustrations 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  M1FFLIN  COMPANY 

The  Riverside  Press  Cambridge 
1920 


COPYRIGHT,   1920,  BY  BESSIE  GARDNER  DU  PONT 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


T? 


TO 

PIERRE  S.  DTT  PONT 

WHOSE  HELP  AND  ENCOURAGEMENT 
HAVE  MADE  THIS  BOOK  POSSIBLE 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

fiLEUTHERE     IRENEE     DU  PONT    DE  NEMOURS 
AT  SIXTY  Frontispiece 

ELEUTHERE   IRENEE   DU  PONT   DE  NEMOURS 
AT  TWENTY  6 

FACSIMILE  or  LETTER  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CONCERNING  POWDER  FOR  THE  GOVERNMENT      22 

No.  1.  ELEUTHERIAN  MILLS,  1806  30 

FACSIMILE  OF  LETTER  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 
CONCERNING  POWDER  FOR  HIS  OWN  USE          38 

A  CIRCULAR  RECEIVED  BY  E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE 
NEMOURS  &  Co.  IN  1838  62 

AN  OLD  BILL  OF  LADING  (1845)  66 

POWDER  WAGON  OF  E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NE- 
MOURS &  Co.  (discontinued,  1889)  136 


E.  I.  DUPONT  DE  NEMOURS 
AND  COMPANY 


CHAPTER  I 

IN  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
there  existed  in  France  a  body  of  scholarly 
men  who  were  very  earnestly  trying  to  find 
some  wise  and  reasonable  method  of  political 
reform.  They  were  in  favor  now  with  one  party 
and  now  with  another,  but  were  always  striv- 
ing to  avert  the  danger  that  they  knew  was 
very  near,  and  to  give  their  country  some  meas- 
ure of  the  liberty  that  all  nations  were  demand- 
ing. Perhaps  their  plans  were  not  sufficiently 
practical;  perhaps  the  financial  problem  was 
incapable  of  solution;  perhaps  the  triumph  of 
the  American  Revolution  had  swept  away  all 
political  restraint  in  France;  but  the  deluge 
foreseen  by  Louis  XV  was  on  them  before  they 
were  ready,  if  they  ever  could  have  been  ready, 
and  in  the  struggle  between  the  King's  party 
and  that  of  the  people  these  men  of  moderate 
opinions  were  probably  the  worst  sufferers. 


2  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

During  the  Reign  of  Terror  many  of  them  were 
imprisoned  or  executed,  and  almost  all  of  them 
who  lived  through  that  fearful  year  were  forced 
to  leave  the  country  that  had  so  ill  rewarded 
their  efforts. 

Among  the  "Moderates"  who  would  have 
been  guillotined  but  for  the  fall  of  Robespierre 
was  Pierre  Samuel  du  Pont  de  Nemours.  He 
was  a  man  of  profound  philosophic  and  literary 
attainments  and  the  author  of  many  treatises 
on  political  economy.  He  had  been  a  pupil  of 
Quesnay,  a  friend  and  valued  assistant  of  Tur- 
got  and  other  Ministers  of  Finance,  and  his 
help  had  been  sought  by  the  rulers  of  other 
countries.  He  held  the  office  of  Counsellor  of 
State  when  he  was  elected  by  the  district l  of 
Nemours  to  the  newly  convened  States  Gen- 
eral. He  was  at  different  times  president  and 
secretary  of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  where 
he  took  an  active  part  among  those  who  hoped 
for  a  constitutional  monarchy.  He  and  his 
younger  son  2  were  with  the  few  who  fought 
in  defence  of  the  King  on  the  memorable  10th 
of  August.  Unfortunately  his  efforts  for  moder- 
ation won  for  him  the  ill-will  of  the  Jacobins; 
he  was  imprisoned  in  La  Force  during  July  and 

1  BaiUiage.  »  E.  I.  du  Pont. 


A  HISTORY  3 

August,  1794,  and  was  saved  from  the  guillo- 
tine only  by  the  death  of  Robespierre.  In  1795 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours  was  elected  deputy  to 
the  Council  of  Ancients,  of  which  body  he  was 
for  a  time  president.  He  attempted  to  add  to 
his  diminished  income  by  establishing  a  print- 
ing-house in  Paris,  where  were  published,  be- 
side various  memoirs  and  books  of  travel,  many 
political  pamphlets  and  a  paper,  "L'Histo- 
rien,"  representing  his  own  political  views. 
Again  he  attacked  the  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment, his  paper  was  suppressed,  and  in  Sep- 
tember, 1797,  he  and  his  younger  son  were  im- 
prisoned in  La  Force  and  he  narrowly  escaped 
deportation  to  Guiana. 

Du  Pont  de  Nemours  had  always  been 
keenly  interested  in  the  Government  and  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States.  He  had,  with  James 
Button,  made  the  preliminary  draft  of  the 
Treaty  of  1783,  by  which  England  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  American  States. 
Franklin  and  Jefferson  were  his  friends,  as 
were  Lafayette  and  Talleyrand.  His  elder  son, 
Victor  du  Pont,  had  lived  in  America  in  various 
diplomatic  and  consular  positions  for  over  ten 
years  and  liked  the  country.  Life  in  France  was 
becoming  more  and  more  difficult;  his  patriotic 


4  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

efforts  had  exhausted  the  greater  part  of  his 
fortune;  and  he  and  his  sons  came  to  believe 
that  their  best  hope  for  success  was  by  emi- 
gration. 

The  enormous  tracts  of  undeveloped  land  in 
America  seemed  to  offer  great  opportunities  for 
investment.  In  1792  a  pamphlet  was  printed  in 
Amsterdam,  entitled  "Reflections  offertes  aux 
capitalistes  de  1'Europe,  sur  les  benefices  im- 
menses  que  presente  1'achat  de  terres  incultes, 
situees  dans  les  Etats-Unis  de  1'Amerique."  In 
that  same  year  an  association  of  Dutch  capi- 
talists, who  had  loaned  large  sums  of  money  to 
the  American  revolutionists,  agreed  to  take 
about  four  million  acres  of  land  in  the  States 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  in  payment  of 
that  debt,  and  called  their  new  venture  "The 
Holland  Land  Company."  Before  the  end  of 
1800  they  had  spent  about  $400,000  more  on 
roads,  fences,  and  buildings  of  different  kinds. 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours  was  much  interested  in 
so  great  a  plan  of  development,  and  deter- 
mined, with  the  help  of  French  investors,  to 
form  an  association  that  he  would  himself 
direct  with  the  assistance  of  his  two  sons  and 
his  wife's  son-in-law,  Bureaux  de  Pusy,  who 
had  been  imprisoned  at  Olmiitz  with  Lafay- 


A  HISTORY  5 

ette,  and  who,  although  released  in  1797,  was 
not  permitted  to  return  to  France  until  1800. 

Du  Pont  de  Nemours's  plan  was  for  a  com- 
pany of  shareholders,  with  a  capital  of  four 
million  francs  in  shares  of  ten  thousand  francs 
each,  for  the  purchase  and  development  of  land 
in  the  western  part  of  Virginia,  principally  in 
the  valley  of  the  James  River;  for  the  estab- 
lishment, also,  of  a  central  office  in  Alexandria, 
which  town  was  being  exploited  as  the  seaport 
nearest  to  the  new  Capital  of  the  United 
States;  and  for  an  office  in  New  York,  to  be 
managed  by  Victor  du  Pont,  who  would  do  a 
banking  and  exporting  business  until  their 
principal  interest  should  become  profitable. 
James  Bidermann,  a  banker  living  in  Paris, 
became  much  interested,  and  offered  as  part 
of  his  share  six  thousand  acres  of  land  that  he 
already  owned  in  Kentucky.  In  the  spring  of 
1799  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  went  to  Holland 
and  Belgium  to  find  other  investors  and  to  give 
his  instructions  to  Bureaux  de  Pusy,  who  in 
May  sailed  for  America  with  his  mother-in- 
law,  Madame  du  Pont  de  Nemours,  and  his 
little  daughter,  to  find  a  home  near  New  York 
for  the  whole  family.  In  the  meantime  Victor 
du  Pont  travelled  in  the  south  of  France  in 


6  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

order  to  form  business  connections;  and  his 
brother,  Eleuthere  Irenee  du  Pont,  undertook 
the  necessary  preparations  for  the  journey  and 
the  sale  of  the  printing-house  in  Paris.  The  little 
leisure  time  left  to  Irenee  du  Pont  was  devoted 
to  the  study  of  botany,  which  had  always  inter- 
ested him.  He  evidently  expected  to  use  that 
knowledge  in  the  development  of  their  Virginia 
land,  for  his  passport  described  him  as  a 
botanist. 

Du  Pont  de  Nemours  soon  had  two  hundred 
and  fourteen  shares  subscribed  for  his  land  en- 
terprise, with  a  very  imposing  list  of  names  — 
Lafayette,  Beaumarchais,  Duquesnoy,  Rous- 
seau, Pourtales,  La  Tour  Maubourg,  Necker 
were  among  them,  but  many  of  them  never  paid. 
Instead  of  the  proposed  4,000,000  francs  he  re- 
ceived only  455,000,  and  of  that  30,000  was 
lost  in  the  failure  of  a  Paris  bank  before  he  left 
Europe.  Moreover,  the  vessel  on  which  his  wife 
and  Bureaux  de  Pusy  had  sailed  from  Holland 
was  captured  by  the  English  and  held  for  four 
months,  so  that  their  part  of  the  preparation  in 
New  York  for  the  establishment  of  the  business 
was  not  accomplished. 

In  September  of  1799  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
decided  that  he  could  wait  no  longer  for  possi- 


ELEUTHERE  IRENES  on  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  AT  TWENTY 


A  HISTORY  7 

ble  subscribers  and  sailed  in  the  ship  American 
Eagle  with  his  two  sons,  Victor  du  Pont,  his 
wife  and  two  children;  Eleuthere  Irenee  du 
Pont,  his  wife  and  their  tlriW  children,  and  his 
wife's  brother,  Charles  Dalmas,  a  youth  of 
twenty-two  years;  Madame  Bureaux  de  Pusy, 
the  stepdaughter  of  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  and 
her  baby.  They  were  ninety-five  days  in  cross- 
ing, and  one  of  Du  Pont  de  Nemours's  biog- 
raphers writes:  "There  was  scarcity  of  every- 
thing, especially  of  water;  the  worn-out  crew 
flew  a  flag  of  distress  for  almost  half  the  voy- 
age. Du  Pont  alone  preserved  his  sang-froid 
and  his  gaiety;  he  entertained  every  one  and 
amused  himself  by  making  verses;  but,  with  his 
sword  under  his  arm,  he  watched  at  night  to 
see  that  the  sailors  did  not  do  violence  to  the 
passengers." 1 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1800  —  it  must  have 
been  a  very  happy  New  Year's  Day  for  them 
—  they  landed  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and 
three  days  later  continued  their  journey  to 
New  York  where  they  met  Madame  du  Pont 
and  Monsieur  de  Pusy. 

When  he  arrived  in  New  York  Du  Pont 

1  Notice  biographique  sur  M.  Du  Pont  (Pierre  Samuel).  Par 
M.  Silvestre;  Paris,  1818. 


8  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

received  a  letter  from  Thomas  Jefferson,  on 
whose  friendship  he  had  counted  for  advice 
about  his  investments,  urging  him  on  no  ac- 
count to  buy  land  under  the  existing  condi- 
tions. Prices  were  unreasonably  high  and 
would  remain  so  for  two  years,  perhaps  longer.1 
Furthermore,  aliens  could  not  own  land  in 
many  of  the  States  and  a  residence  of  five  years 
was  requisite  for  naturalization  in  all  of  them 
except  Virginia,  where  ownership  of  real  estate 
was  the  only  qualification.  The  company  could 
arrange  no  importations  of  merchandise  be- 
cause the  custom-house  duties  were  ten  per 
cent  higher  for  aliens  than  for  citizens.  Conse- 
quently Victor  du  Pont,  the  only  one  of  the 
directors  who  spoke  English  readily,  bought  a 
house  in  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  was  natural- 
ized a  few  months  after  their  arrival. 

As  a  result  of  so  many  disappointments, 
about  one  fifth  of  their  capital  had  been  spent 
by  the  autumn  of  1800;  it  was  imperative  that 
investments  should  be  found  for  what  was  left, 
even  if  the  ultimate  profit  was  to  be  much  less 
than  the  shareholders  were  expecting.  Du  Pont 
de  Nemours  was  never  lacking  in  ideas,  and  he 

1  Statement  made  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  the  shareholders 
of  his  company,  April  18,  1808. 


A  HISTORY  9 

evolved  many  plans  that  seemed  promising. 
He  arranged  for  the  exchange  of  cargoes  with 
a  friend  in  Guadeloupe;  he  offered  to  the  Gov- 
ernments of  France  and  the  United  States  a 
plan  for  a  regular  passenger-boat  service;  he 
worked  out  methods  of  communication  be- 
tween Spain  and  the  Governor  of  Mexico l  that 
should  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  English 
Navy  —  England  being  then  at  war  with 
Spain;  and  last,  and  presumably  least  impor- 
tant, he  allowed  his  younger  son  to  plan  for 
the  establishment  of  a  manufacture  of  gun- 
powder. 

In  1788,  when  a  boy  of  sixteen,  Eleuthere 
Irenee  du  Pont,  whom  his  family  called  Irenee, 
but  who  came  to  be  better  known  as  E.  I.  du 
Pont,  began  the  study  of  chemistry  at  Essonne, 
in  the  laboratory  of  his  father's  friend  Lavois- 
ier, who  was  then  in  charge  of  the  manufacture 
of  gunpowder  for  the  French  Government.  So 
well  was  Lavoisier  pleased  with  his  pupil  that 
his  future  was  supposed  to  be  definitely  ar- 
ranged as  assistant  and  eventually  chief  of  that 
manufacture;  but  the  strictness  and  economy 
of  Lavoisier's  administration  had  made  him  un- 
popular, and  his  position  was  one  of  the  first 

1  Mexico  was  a  colony  of  Spain  until  1821. 


10  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

to  be  suppressed  by  the  Revolution,  in  1791. 
Lavoisier  accepted  a  position  in  the  Treasury, 
and  Irenee  du  Pont,  unwilling  to  remain  in  the 
Powder  Department  after  his  chief  had  left  it, 
joined  his  father  in  the  management  of  his 
printing-house  in  Paris. 

Pamphlets  and  journals  were  issued  broad- 
cast at  that  time  of  popular  excitement,  and 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours's  presses  were  never  idle. 
His  father's  imprisonment  during  the  Terror 
threw  all  the  work  on  Irenee's  shoulders;  he 
proved  to  be  an  efficient  manager  of  men  and 
affairs,  and  would  probably  have  made  a  suc- 
cess of  his  new  occupation  but  for  the  political 
purpose  of  his  father's  writings,  which  resulted 
in  the  temporary  imprisonment  of  both  father 
and  son  and  the  suppression  of  their  principal 
publication. 

Irenee  du  Pont,  therefore,  though  only 
twenty-eight  years  old  when  he  arrived  in 
America,  was  a  man  of  unusual  training  and 
experience.  Through  no  fault  of  his  own  he  had 
twice  lost  what  had  seemed  to  be  a  permanent 
occupation.  He  had  no  intention  of  throwing 
away  either  his  little  capital  or  his  training  by 
attempting  to  earn  his  livelihood  by  uncon- 
genial work,  yet  it  was  imperative  that  he 


A  HISTORY  11 

should  arrange  for  the  support  of  his  wife  and 
children. 

While  he  was  in  that  very  unsettled  frame 
of  mind  he  went  for  a  day's  shooting  with 
Colonel  Toussard,  a  friend  of  his  brother  Vic- 
tor who  had  come  to  America  with  Lafayette 
and  had  stayed  in  the  country.  They  shot  away 
all  their  powder  and  bought  a  new  supply  at 
the  nearest  shop.  The  high  price  and  bad  qual- 
ity of  this  powder  impressed  Irenee  du  Pont, 
and  he  easily  interested  Toussard,  who  helped 
him  to  learn  all  about  the  industry  as  it  was 
carried  on  in  America.  Their  information  satis- 
fied Irenee  that  there  was  a  real  opportunity 
for  a  powder  manufactory  built  and  managed 
on  the  plan  of  the  French  Government  works. 
He  made  careful  estimates  of  what  he  would 
need  in  money  and  machinery  and  went  back 
to  Europe  in  January,  1801,  accompanied  by 
his  brother.1  He  was  in  France  for  three 
months  and  returned  when  his  errand  was 
accomplished,  landing  in  Philadelphia  about 
the  middle  of  July.  He  had  secured  the  money 
he  thought  necessary,  or  promises  of  it,  and 
had  ordered  machinery  in  France.  The  esti- 
mates that  he  took  abroad  called  for  twenty- 

1  See  Appendix,  p.  167. 


12  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

four  thousand  for  the  first  cost  of  land,  build- 
ings, and  machines,  and  twelve  thousand 
dollars  more  for  raw  materials  and  successive 
payments  on  the  land.  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
was  unwilling  to  take  the  whole  amount  from 
the  capital  of  the  original  land  company,  but 
Irenee  had  little  difficulty  in  interesting  friends 
of  his  father  in  his  own  project;  those  who  sub- 
scribed most  largely  were  James  Bidermann, 
General  Duquesnoy,  and  Necker,  a  brother  of 
the  former  Minister  of  Finance.  Mr.  Bider- 
mann's  share  was  partly  used  in  France  to  pay 
for  the  machinery  that  Irenee  du  Pont  bought 
with  the  advice  and  help  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Government  Powder  Department.  This  trans- 
action is  most  interesting;  the  description  and 
explanation  of  machinery  and  even  offers  of 
trained  workmen  to  be  sent  to  him  in  America 
were  written  on  paper  with  the  Government 
letter  head;  the  machines  were  made  at  the 
Arsenal  and  the  Government  works  at  Essonne, 
and  the  drawings  were  made  by  Government 
draftsmen.  In  a  country  so  entirely  military  as 
France  had  become,  such  consideration  could 
hardly  be  merely  the  courtesy  of  former  asso- 
ciates, and  seems  to  be  best  explained  by  a  let- 
ter that  Irenee  du  Pont  wrote  to  his  father  six 


A  HISTORY  13 

or  seven  years  later:  "It  is  the  commerce  of 
the  English  only  that  American  manufacturers 
can  hurt.  In  four  years  I  have  made  600,000 
pounds  of  powder  that  would  have  come  from 
England  if  I  had  not  made  it;  therefore  it  is 
only  the  English  that  I  have  injured.  This  truth 
was  well  understood  in  France  when  I  was 
given  every  facility  for  procuring  my  machin- 
ery." l  Napoleon's  efforts  to  destroy  the  com- 
merce of  England  seem  to  have  been  most 
fortunate  for  the  equipment  of  the  American 
powder  mills. 

While  Irenee  du  Pont  was  in  Europe  his 
father,  at  Jefferson's  suggestion,  had  tried 
unsuccessfully  to  find  a  location  for  the  mills 
near  Washington.  On  his  return  Irenee  went 
there  himself,  but  found  "no  opportunity  in 
Maryland  or  Virginia  near  Federal  City; 2  the 
country,  the  people,  the  location  are  all 
worthless." 3  And  he  decided  "to  stay  a  day  in 
Wilmington  to  see  the  Brandywine." 4  Prob- 
ably his  friendship  with  Colonel  Toussard  and 
Victor's  with  Alexandre  Bauduy,  both  of  whom 
lived  near  Wilmington,  influenced  him  to  visit 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  October  1,  1808. 
*  Washington. 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  September  19, 1801. 
«  Ibid. 


14  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

that  part  of  the  country.  Naturally  he  was  also 
interested  to  meet  the  little  colony  of  French- 
men, all  of  whom  urged  him  to  make  his  home 
near  them.  But  agreeable  neighbors  were  only 
one  consideration  —  the  money  promised  in 
France  had  not  all  been  paid,  and  as  it  was  be- 
coming evident  that  much  of  it  never  would  be, 
more  must  be  found  in  America.  In  the  mean- 
time his  machinery  was  arriving  from  France 
and  he  had  nowhere  to  put  it.  Irenee  du  Pont 
had  tried  to  buy,  from  one  William  Lane,  pow- 
der mills  that  for  some  years  had  been  making 
rather  bad  powder  at  Frankford,  near  Phila- 
delphia, but  Lane  refused  to  sell.  Various  loca- 
tions were  suggested,  one  at  Rosendall  on  the 
Hudson  River,  another  near  Paterson  in  New 
Jersey;  but  the  Bauduys  were  very  eager  that 
a  site  near  Wilmington  should  be  chosen,  and 
Peter  Bauduy,  the  brother  of  Victor  du  Font's 
friend,  was  lavish  with  his  offers  of  money  and 
influence.  He  suggested  two  properties,  one 
belonging  to  a  man  named  Harvey;  another 
farther  in  the  country,  belonging  to  Jacob 
Broom. 

Irenee  du  Pont  finally  decided  in  favor  of 
Broom's  farm  of  ninety-five  acres,  the  price  of 
which  was  $6740.  At  that  time,  however,  an 


A  HISTORY  15 

alien  could  not  own  land  in  Delaware,  and  in 
November  of  1801  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  asked 
the  advice  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  of- 
fered to  "consult  Mr.  Bayard  of  Wilmington, 
as  being  influential  in  Delaware,  to  find  out 
whether  it  is  possible  during  this  winter  session 
to  obtain  from  the  State  a  special  act  which, 
unless  there  is  unreasonable  animosity  against 
the  French,  should  not  be  refused  to  a  large 
and  valuable  industry." l  Apparently  no  such 
legislation  was  effected,  for  on  the  27th  of  the 
following  April  the  deed  to  the  desired  prop- 
erty was  made  in  the  name  of  William  Hainon, 
a  naturalized  Frenchman  living  in  Wilmington 
and  friend  of  the  Bauduys.  Irenee  du  Font's 
capital  then  consisted  of  his  machinery,  for 
which  Bidermann  had  paid  four  thousand  dol- 
lars in  France;  ten  thousand  dollars  in  cash  — 
or  rather,  in  his  father's  stock-company  —  of 
which  two  thousand  was  needed  at  once  for  the 
land;  a  cargo  of  salt  supposed  to  be  worth  four 
thousand  dollars,  which  represented  General 
Duquesnoy's  share;  and  Mr.  Bidermann's 
promise  of  five  thousand  dollars  more  —  a 
total  of  twenty-three  thousand  dollars. 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Peter  Bauduy,  November  30.  1801. 


CHAPTER  IT 

1802-1804 

SHORTLY  after  Victor  and  Irenee  du 
Pont  went  to  France  in  1801,  Bureaux 
de  Pusy  with  his  wife  and  child  made  the 
same  journey,  intending  to  go  to  Spain  to 
arrange  for  Du  Pont  de  Nemours's  Spanish- 
American  shipments,  but  when  he  reached 
France  the  treaty  of  peace  between  England 
and  Spain  was  being  drawn  up  at  Amiens  and 
the  scheme  was  purposeless.  He  accepted  a 
position  under  the  French  Government  and 
never  returned  to  America. 

Victor  du  Pont's  mission  was  not  much  more 
successful,  as  the  French  Government  de- 
clined to  listen  to  the  packet-boat  plan;  but  he 
made  important  acquaintances  in  Paris  and 
came  back  to  America  four  or  five  months 
later  than  his  brother,  believing  that  if  he 
could  establish  a  creditable  commission  house 
in  New  York,  he  could  get  from  the  French 
Government  charge  of  all  their  financial  affairs 
in  America.  During  his  absence  the  Guade- 
loupe trade  arranged  by  his  father  had  been 


A  HISTORY  17 

ended  by  a  revolution  in  that  island.  The  stock- 
company,  which  was  known  as  Du  Pont  de 
Nemours,  Father,  Sons  and  Company,  had 
spent  one  quarter  of  its  capital  and  was  with- 
out any  definite  plan  for  the  future  except  an 
interest  in  the  powder  factory,  for  which  as  yet 
no  site  had  been  chosen. 

A  new  difficulty  then  confronted  the  father 
and  sons.  Their  corporation  had  been  organ- 
ized according  to  the  laws  of  France  for  the 
formation  of  a  commandite  —  a  stock-company 
wherein  each  shareholder  is  responsible  only 
for  the  amount  he  has  invested.  After  his  ar- 
rival in  New  York  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
learned,  what  none  of  the  investors  had  known 
before,  that  in  America  no  such  form  of  organ- 
ization was  recognized  and  no  laws  existed  for 
the  protection  of  his  shareholders  —  that  any 
one  of  them  might  become  responsible  for  the 
entire  indebtedness  of  the  Company.1 

Unquestionably  the  New  York  house  was 
not  doing  enough  business  to  employ  both 
father  and  son,  and  if  Victor  du  Pont's  hope 
for  financial  relations  with  the  French  Govern- 
ment was  to  be  realized  one  of  them  must  be 

1  Statement  made  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  the  sharehold- 
ers of  his  company,  April  18,  1808. 


18  '  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

in  Paris.  While  they  hesitated,  President  Jeffer- 
son asked  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  assist  the 
American  Minister  in  his  negotiations  with 
Bonaparte  and  Talleyrand  for  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana.  So  important  a  mission  could  not 
be  refused,  and  Du  Pont  and  his  wife  returned 
to  France  in  June,  1802.  Before  sailing  he  drew 
up  a  formal  agreement  with  his  elder  son  by 
which  they  established  two  firms  —  Du  Pont 
de  Nemours,  Pere  et  Fils  et  Cie,  the  original 
stock-company,  was,  for  the  protection  of  its 
shareholders,  to  have  its  office  in  Paris  and  to 
be  directed  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours.  The  sec- 
ond firm,  V.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  and  Com- 
pany, of  New  York,  was  nominally  independ- 
ent of  the  Paris  house.  Those  firms  were  to  hold 
eleven  shares  in  the  powder  enterprise,  valued 
at  two  thousand  dollars  a  share  —  in  other 
words,  to  find  two  thirds  of  the  necessary  capi- 
tal. Irenee  had  disposed  of  three  shares  in 
Europe,  and  Peter  Bauduy,  who  had  just  sold 
large  properties  in  San  Domingo,  offered  to  buy 
two  shares  in  the  manufactory  and  to  take  an 
active  part  in  its  management;  with  this  en- 
couragement the  success  of  Irenee's  under- 
taking seemed  assured. 
As  soon  as  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  and  his  wife 


A  HISTORY  19 

had  sailed  for  France  in  June,  1802,  Irenee 
made  his  own  preparations  for  leaving  New 
York.  His  brother-in-law,  Dalmas,  went  first, 
in  charge  of  dogs,  sheep,  boxes,  and  barrels, 
and  a  few  days  later  Mr.  and  Mrs.  du  Pont  and 
their  children  followed,  arriving  in  Delaware 
on  the  19th  of  July,  1802.  Their  home  was  a 
two-story  log  house  on  the  land  that  Mr.  du 
Pont  had  bought  from  Jacob  Broom,  four  miles 
from  Wilmington.  The  discomfort  was  very 
great,  but  he  wanted  to  be  close  to  his  work, 
and  in  February  of  1803  he  wrote  to  his  father: 
"We  have  accomplished  an  astonishing  amount 
of  work  since  August,  but  I  am  dismayed  when 
I  think  of  what  is  still  before  us.  Within  three 
months  we  have  built  a  large  house  and  barn  of 
stone  and  the  greater  part  of  the  refinery;  we 
have  repaired  the  water-course  and  the  sawmill 
in  which  we  prepare  the  wood  for  our  frame- 
work, and  a  part  of  that  used  for  the  machines. 
This  month  we  have  still  to  build  three  mills 
and  one  or  two  other  buildings;  to  dig  a  new 
race  for  one  of  the  mills;  to  make  the  drying 
place,  the  magazine,  the  workmen's  quarters. 
It  is  evident  that  we  cannot  make  powder  be- 
fore the  autumn."  l  To  add  to  his  difficulties 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  February  7. 1808. 


20  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

his  family  were  not  well,  "the  position  of  our 
little  house  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  valley  and 
in  the  damp  air  of  the  creek  is  not  a  healthful 
one,  but  I  think  that  when  spring  comes  and 
we  live  on  the  hill  I  shall  be  quite  strong 
again."  * 

The  capital  that  was  to  serve  as  a  founda- 
tion for  Victor  du  Font's  firm,  V.  du  Pont  de 
Nemours  and  Company,  consisted  almost 
wholly  of  real  estate  of  little  value  —  the  house 
in  which  he  lived  at  Bergen  Point,  with  twenty 
acres  of  land;  the  shop  in  Alexandria,  Vir- 
ginia, that  was  bought  for  his  naturalization; 
and  the  six  thousand  acres  in  Kentucky  that 
had  belonged  to  James  Bidermann.  Before  the 
Du  Ponts  came  to  America  Mr.  Bidermann's 
land  was  managed  by  an  agent  who,  through 
carelessness,  allowed  it  to  be  sold  for  taxes  for 
twelve  hundred  dollars.  One  of  Du  Pont  de 
Nemours's  first  efforts  in  this  country  was  to 
regain  possession  of  the  land,  and  it  was  bought 
in  Victor  du  Pont's  name  for  two  thousand 
dollars. 

In  spite  of  the  slenderness  of  his  resources, 
Victor  du  Pont  for  the  first  year  did  very  well. 
He  had  a  large  business  with  the  French  West 

»  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  February  7, 1803. 


A  HISTORY  21 

Indies  and  sent  valuable  cargoes  to  France. 
Unfortunately  two  of  his  best  ships  were  lost, 
many  accounts  due  him  were  never  paid,  and 
in  March  of  1803  he  wrote  to  Irenee:  "I  do  my 
best  to  make  money,  but  if  I  had  to  send  you 
now  the  six  thousand  dollars  I  still  owe  you  for 
the  manufacture  I  would  have  nothing  left. 
I  will  send  it  little  by  little,  the  later  the  better, 
and  better  still  if  you  could  get  it  somewhere 
else;  but  even  if  I  sent  it  at  once  it  would  be 
insufficient  to  finish  the  work." 1  To  make  mat- 
ters worse,  Victor,  who  was  still  hoping  that 
he  might  be  appointed  financial  agent  for 
the  French  Government,  advanced  to  Pichon 
the  French  Consul-General,  two  hundred  thou- 
sand francs,  "chiefly  in  notes  that  have  long  to 
run," 2  in  return  for  San  Domingo  drafts  on  the 
Paymaster  of  the  French  Navy,  which  Victor 
sent  to  Paris  for  his  father  to  collect,  an  opera- 
tion that  was  necessarily  slow  even  when  suc- 
cessful. From  that  time  he  was  entirely  occupied 
by  his  efforts  to  meet  those  notes;  there  was 
nothing  left  for  Irenee's  powder  mills.  But  the 
building  went  on  in  spite  of  all  discouragement; 
Irenee  at  last  asked  his  brother  to  buy  and  send 

1  Victor  du  Pont  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  April  23.  1803. 
»  Ibid. 


22  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

him  six  tons  of  saltpetre,  and  in  July,  1803,  he 
wrote  to  President  Jefferson  "to  ask  his  inter- 
est, and  work  for  the  mills.  The  result  was  a 
letter  from  the  Secretary  of  War  giving  us  the 
refining  of  saltpetre  now  in  the  Government's 
possession;  the  making-over  of  damaged  pow- 
der; and  the  furnishing  of  new  powder  when  the 
Government  shall  need  it."  * 

At  last  in  the  spring  of  1804  there  was  pow- 
der ready  for  sale,  and  Victor,  to  whom  some  of 
it  was  sent,  wrote,  "  You  may  be  sure  that  I  will 
do  my  best  to  sell  the  powder  and  I  will  cer- 
tainly succeed," 2  and  he  suggested  a  notice  in 
the  papers: 

E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  GUN  POWDEB 
MANUFACTORY 

Wilmington,  Delaware 

This  new  and  extensive  establishment  is  now 
in  activity  and  any  quantity  of  powder,  equal 
if  not  superior  to  any  manufactured  in  Europe 
will  be  delivered  at  the  shortest  notice. 
Samples  to  be  seen  at 

V.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  ET  CIE 
New  York2 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  August  8,  1803. 
•  Victor  du  Pont  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  May  1  and  2, 1804. 


[FACSIMILE] 


*'$&&& 


A  HISTORY  23 

All  seemed  to  be  going  well  at  last.  But  the 
powder  was  sold  on  long  credit,  and  the  work- 
men had  to  be  paid  and  the  materials  bought. 
Jerome  Bonaparte,  who  was  then  in  New  York, 
promised  i  Victor  du  Pont  to  help  him  with  his 
influence  with  Napoleon,  and  on  the  strength 
of  those  promises  was  spending  all  the  ready 
money  that  Victor  could  give  him.  It  was 
necessary  to  ask  Bauduy  for  the  use  of  his 
credit,  and  he  became  "nervous  and  worried 
about  the  result.'* l  He  wrote  to  Victor  to  com- 
plain of  Irenee's  methods,  of  the  expense  of  the 
farm,  of  the  cost  of  feeding  the  workmen.  Vic- 
tor advised  his  brother  to  conciliate  Bauduy, 
but  Irenee  was  exhausted  by  hard  work  and 
desperately  afraid  that  his  whole  venture 
would  fail  for  lack  of  funds.  He  was  getting  long 
letters  from  his  father  complaining,  rather  un- 
fairly, of  Victor's  investments,  and  criticism 
of  his  brother  always  hurt  him  deeply,  espe- 
cially now  when  he  knew  that  Victor  was  on 
the  verge  of  failure.  He  was  in  no  conciliatory 
mood;  and  Bauduy  chose  that  unfortunate 
moment  to  assert  authority  in  the  business, 
and  when  that  authority  was  questioned  he 
threatened  newspaper  publicity  and  a  law-suit. 

i  Victor  du  Pont  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  July  10,  1804. 


24  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

The  two  men  had  never  been  congenial  — 
Bauduy  seems  to  have  been  full  of  hospitality 
and  good  cheer,  while  Irenee  admitted  his  own 
"coldness  and  sensitiveness."1  Bauduy,  how- 
ever, was  not  frank  in  his  business  methods, 
while  Irenee  was  sincerity  itself,  and  was  hor- 
rified to  find  that  he  had  been  led  to  sign  pa- 
pers written  in  English,2  which  at  the  time  he 
understood  imperfectly,  giving  Bauduy  a  full 
partnership  in  the  powder  company.  On  Bau- 
duy's  side,  instead  of  the  four  thousand  dollars 
that  he  at  first  offered,  he  had  put  into  the 
business  eight  thousand  dollars  in  actual 
money  and  notes  for  eighteen  thousand  dollars 
more;  naturally  he  wanted  to  know  how  its 
affairs  were  administered  Both  men  wrote  all 
their  anger  to  Victor  du  Pont,  who  tried  with 
some  success  to  explain  away  their  grievances. 
The  greatest  difficulty  for  the  moment  was 
the  name  of  the  new  firm.  Partly  because  of 
his  knowledge  of  English  and  partly  because 
Irenee  du  Pont  was  engrossed  in  the  construc- 
tion work,  Bauduy  had  done  all  the  correspond- 
ence of  the  company  and  had  done  it  in  his  own 
name.  Du  Pont  objected  to  that  arrangement, 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Victor  du  Pont,  December  13, 1804. 

2  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Peter  Bauduy,  December  14,  1804. 


A  HISTORY  25 

which  gave  outsiders  the  right  to  suppose  that 
he  was  merely  the  head- workman  in  the  mills. 
Bauduy  then  suggested,  what  he  had  probably 
had  in  mind  all  along,  that  the  letters  be  signed 
"Du  Pont,  Bauduy  and  Company,"  but  Du 
Font's  answer  was  very  emphatic  —  "If,  as  I 
hope,  it  earns  a  reputation  greater  than  that  of 
others,  and  if  it  makes  a  name  —  that  name 
should  be  mine." 1 

He  carried  his  point;  and  though  he  died 
more  than  eighty  years  ago  the  signature  is 
still  "E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  and  Com- 
pany." The  name  is  his. 

»  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Peter  Bauduy,  December  12, 1804. 


CHAPTER  HI 

1805-1809 

IN  June  of  1805  the  output  of  the  mills  war- 
ranted the  employment  of  outside  agents, 
and  Irenee  du  Font's  letters  to  his  father  show 
more  confidence  for  the  future.  He  had  "made 
twenty-two  thousand  pounds  of  powder  for  the 
frigates  sent  to  Algeria.  This  powder  was  tested 
several  times  at  Federal  City1  and  was  com- 
pared with  powder  sent  by.  all  of  the  manu- 
facturers, as  well  as  with  some  lately  secured 
from  England,  and  it  proved  so  superior  that 
old  Mr.  Dearborn,2  in  spite  of  his  unwillingness, 
sent  us  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds  to  remake  and  a  part  of  his  salt- 
petre to  refine,  and  he  announced  publicly  on 
the  Fourth  of  July  before  the  officers,  who  were 
delighted  with  our  powder,  that  in  future  we 
will  do  all  the  Government  work.  Beside  that, 
I  have  in  the  last  month  made  forty  thousand 
pounds  for  the  Spanish  Minister."  3 
He  had  become  self-supporting  just  in  time, 

1  Washington.  *  The  Secretary  of  War. 

«  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  August  6. 1805. 


A  HISTORY  27 

for  in  August  of  1805  Victor  du  Pont  failed, 
partly  because  he  never  had  sufficient  capital, 
but  chiefly  because  the  French  Government 
refused  to  honor  certain  San  Domingo  drafts 
on  the  Paymaster  of  the  French  Navy.  In  the 
first  six  months  after  Du  Pont  de  Nemours's 
return  to  France,  Victor  du  Pont  received  in 
payment  of  various  cargoes  to  Guadeloupe  and 
San  Domingo  four  hundred  and  seventy  thou- 
sand francs  in  drafts  that  were  cashed  in  Paris 
by  his  father.  Later  on  he  paid  the  expenses  in 
New  York  of  a  squadron  of  five  French  frigates 
from  Guadeloupe  and  was  fully  reimbursed  by 
the  French  Government  for  that  and  for  fur- 
nishing various  supplies  for  other  vessels.  He 
was  still  eager  to  act  as  American  financial 
agent  for  the  French  Government,  and  both 
Jerome  Bonaparte  and  the  Consul-General, 
Pichon,  encouraged  his  hopes  and  borrowed  of 
him  freely.  By  1805  he  held  San  Domingo 
drafts  to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  thousand 
francs,  which  he  forwarded  to  his  father  for 
collection.  Very  many  other  San  Domingo 
drafts  were  presented  for  payment  at  the  same 
time.  Few  of  them  were  accepted  by  the  Gov- 
ernment and  those  few  were  paid  only  a  small 
percentage  of  their  face  value.  The  ones  held 


28  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

by  Victor  du  Pont,  however,  were  specially  dis- 
criminated against  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon's 
decree  censuring  Pichon's  accounts  and  refus- 
ing to  pay  them;  the  fact  that  Pichon  was  dis- 
missed from  his  office  in  no  way  helped  Victor 
du  Pont. 

Of  course  Irenee  could  expect  no  more  help 
from  Victor;  indeed  he  was  in  some  danger 
from  creditors  of  the  New  York  firm,  many  of 
whom  applied  to  him  for  their  payments;  but 
Victor  had  been  very  careful  to  protect  his 
brother's  interests.  The  failure,  however,  more 
than  doubled  Irenee's  burden,  for  his  father's 
company  in  Paris  had  been  existing  almost  en- 
tirely on  the  sale  of  the  cargoes  sent  over  by 
Victor,  and  Irenee  had  now  not  only  the  anx- 
iety of  his  own  business  —  he  had  also  to  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  both  his  father  and 
brother  until  the  latter  could  get  on  his  feet 
again;  at  home  he  had  always  to  bear  with 
Bauduy's  fault-finding,  and  he  could  not  bear  it 
cheerfully.  He  was  most  anxious  that  his  father 
should  return  to  this  country  and  live  with  him, 
for  he  was  quite  sure  that  the  Paris  firm  was 
losing  money,  and  he  believed  that  his  father's 
friendships  in  America  would  be  helpful  for  the 
powder  interests.  But  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 


A  HISTORY  29 

was  happily  occupied  in  Paris;  he  had  been 
made  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce; 
he  was  among  his  old  friends  of  the  Institut, 
of  the  Societe  Philanthropique,  of  the  Societe 
d'Encouragement  pour  I'lndustrie;  above  all, 
he  was  editing  the  works  of  Turgot,  and  he 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  leave  Paris  while 
his  task  was  unfinished. 

Meanwhile  the  business  was  gaining  slowly: 
in  1804  the  sales  amounted  to  ten  thousand 
dollars;  in  1805  to  thirty-three  thousand;  in 

1806  they  dropped  to  thirty-two  thousand;  in 

1807  they  were  forty-three  thousand.  "But," 
Irenee  wrote  to  his  father,  "in  spite  of  this 
success  I  am  still  somewhat  embarrassed,  and 
as  yet  have  been  unable  to  pay  any  part  of  the 
eleven  thousand  dollars  that  I  borrowed  from 
the  bank,  because  the  first  expenses  and  the 
completion  of  the  establishment  cost  more  than 
I  had  calculated,  and  because  in  that  calcula- 
tion I  forgot  the  credit  of  six  months  and  more 
that  we  must  necessarily  allow  on  all  sales;  thus 
there  is  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  thousand 
dollars  due  us  now." 

In  the  same  letter,  dated  February  8,  1808, 
he  tells  of  the  first  explosion  in  the  mills: 
"Tired  of  building  and  forced  by  the  demand 


30  '  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

to  start  manufacturing  as  soon  as  possible,  I 
was  obliged  to  use  a  house  that  was  already 
built,  sixty  feet  from  the  graining  mill,  to  make 
a  heated  dry-house.  Attached  to  this  was  an- 
other building  that  was  formerly  used  in  the 
cotton  manufactory  l  and  that  I  use  for  a 
charcoal  house,  having  no  other.  I  knew  that 
the  charcoal  had  several  times  lighted  spon- 
taneously at  the  Essonne  mills  and  at  other 
mills  in  France;  I  knew  the  danger  of  thus  hav- 
ing powder  and  charcoal  under  the  same  roof; 
but  my  partner  2  did  not  think  as  I  did;  we 
were  tired  of  building  and  we  had  to  start.  On 
the  18th  of  August 3  we  had  taken  the  charcoal 
out  of  the  furnace  with  the  fire  absolutely  ex- 
tinguished. When  we  stopped  work  in  the  eve- 
ning Dalmas 4  and  I  went  to  look  at  the  charcoal 
to  be  sure  that  there  was  no  appearance  of 
danger;  we  saw  none.  After  supper  Dalmas 
said,  'We  should  go  back  and  look  at  the  char- 
coal —  it  is  too  dangerous.  Will  you  go  or  shall 
I? '  Then  he  added, '  You  are  tired;  I  will  go.'  In 
less'  than  fifteen  minutes  after  he  left  the  dry- 
ing-house exploded  with  a  tremendous  crash. 
I  ran  down,  convinced  that  Dalmas  was  lost. 

1  Built  by  Jacob  Broom  in  1795.  See  also  Appendix,  p.  189. 
«  Asaocti,  i.e.  Bauduy.        *  1807.         4  His  brother-in-law. 


A  HISTORY  SI 

Imagine  my  joy  when  he  was  the  first  to  answer 
my  call.  We  spent  the  rest  of  the  night  putting 
out  the  fire  and  preventing  it  from  spreading  to 
other  buildings.  All  of  the  window  panes  in  my 
house  were  broken  and  some  of  the  windows 
blown  in.  What  proved  most  fortunate  for  us 
and  really  seemed  help  sent  from  Heaven,  was 
the  light  wind,  cold  and  damp,  that  was  blow- 
ing from  the  northeast  and  had  thoroughly  wet 
all  the  roofs."  Most  fortunate  was  that  damp 
wind,  for  a  serious  explosion  just  then  would 
have  been  disastrous. 

The  original  agreement  with  the  sharehold- 
ers1 had  specified  that  an  accounting  should  be 
given  them  at  the  end  of  1809.  That  statement, 
which  was  much  belated,  showed  that  the  sales 
for  the  six  years  amounted  to  $243,554.79  and 
the  profits  to  $43,613.31.  Irenee  du  Pont  and 
Bauduy,  who  together  held  only  five  of  the 
eighteen  shares  of  stock,  promptly  invested  the 
whole  profit  in  very  necessary  raw  materials 
and  in  payments  on  some  of  their  notes;  at 
which  the  European  shareholders,  who  had 

1  There  were  eighteen  shares  in  the  powder  company.  E.  I. 
du  Pont  owned  one;  Bidermann,  one;  Bauduy,  four;  the  remain- 
ing twelve  were  held  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  Pere  et  Fila  et 
Compagnie.  See  Appendix,  p.  175. 


32  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

counted  on  enormous  dividends,  were  loud  in 
their  expressions  of  indignation. 

STATEMENT  OF  GUNPOWDER  SOLD  BY  MESSRS.  E.  I. 
DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  &  Co.  AND  THEIR  AGENTS 
UP  TO  THE  31  DEC.,  1809 

Quantity    '  • 
Sold  by  themselves       in  pounds      Kegs 

1804 11,350          454  $  4,368.00 

1805 80,720         3228  29,581.00 

1806 38,269         1527  14,239.00 

1807 38,551         1541  *   13,495.00 

1808 53,900         2156  22,523.00 

1809 25,456        1018  12,694.00 

$96,900.00 

Sold  by  the  following  agents 

Mitchell  &  Shepherd 330  2,927.65 

Delaire  &  Canut 249  2,552.07 

V.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co 96  787.52 

Aubin  Laforest 550  5,829.36 

John  Sullivan 253.27 

Anthony  Chs.  Cazenove 975  10,213.10 

Anthony  Girard 33,972.55 

Richard  Bowden  &  Co 302  2,545.98 

Archibald  McCall 36,486.16 

Brujiere  &  Teisseire 490  5,505.85 

Suydam  &  Wickoff 674.96 

D.  P.  Dows  &  Co 465.79 

Thomas  Shewall 4,548.39 

Benjamin  Herr 32 

John  Hancock 470  4,987.32 

Samuel  Hastings 410.00 

John  Strong *  472.10 

Watkinson  &  Co. . .                       ....  716.78 


A  HISTORY 


33 


John  Chew 

John  Thurston 

Anthony  Buck 

Mein  &  Rodgers 66 

John  Whipple 

Richard  Drummond  &  Co 140 


426.50 
300. 
184.04 
570.24 
854.75 
1,630.51 


$214,214.79 
$5,355.37  P.  Bauduy's  Commission  @  2|  pr.  ct. 

Brought  forward     $214,214.79 
Gunpowder  manufactured   & 
reman  ufactured    with    the 
saltpetre  of  the  U.  States. 

£fe 

In  1805 35,000  2,800.00 

1806 67,200  6,376.00 

1807 29,500  2,360.00 

1808 98,400  8,116.00 

1809 93,800  10,688.00 

$29,340.00  $243,554.79 

$1,467.00    P.  Bauduy's  Commission  ©  5  pr.  ct. 
5,355.37    Brought  forward. 

$6,822.37    Carried  to  account  currant 

Inventory  of  the  money,  prime  materials,  gunpowder 
manufactured,  goods,  land  property,  improvements  on 
the  same;  and  debts  belonging  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de 
Nemours  &  Company:  as  also  of  the  debts  due  by 
Them  to  Others  on  the  31st  day  of  December,  1809, 
when  the  term  of  their  original  association  expired,  as 
per  Statements  in  waste  book  No.  6,  folios  1  and  24; 
and  in  Journal  No.  7,  folios  1  and  26: 


34 


DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 


To  WIT 
Belonging  to  them 

Cash  in  the  Delaware  Bank $  1,911.66 

Prime  materials  outstanding:  valued  at 4,028.34 

Gunpowder  unsold:  valued  at 21,780.64 

Bills  receivable 1,130.00 

Goods   and   land   property   mortgaged   to 

them 5,712.97 

Real  estate  of  their  own,  buildings  thereon, 

machinery  and  utensils:  valued  at 42,750.00 

Book  debts  due  to  them 31,504.31 


Brought  over 
They  are  indebted  as  follows: 

Book  debts  due  by  them $22,304.24 

Promissory  notes  due  by  them       6,900.00 
18  shares  due  to  the  stock- 
holders      36,000.00 

Profit  made  since  the  21  April,  1801,  to  the 
21  Dec.,  1809,  and  divided  as  stated  in 
waste  book  no.  6,  folio  24 


$108,817.92 
$108,817.92 


65,204.24 


$43,613.68 


Shares  of  Stock  Shares  of  Profit 

1    J.  Bidermann 1  placed  to  a/c  ct. 

12   Du  Pont  Father  &  Co.  12 

4   Peter  Bauduy 7      "     "       " 

1   E.LduPont 10      "     "       " 


1,453.78 
17,445.47 
10,176.52 
14,537.91 

$43,613.68 


CHAPTER  IV 

1809-1814 

DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  and  his  son 
had  expected  much  help  for  the  powder 
company  from  the  Government  because  of 
their  friendship  with  Thomas  Jefferson  —  help 
that  the  President  was  very  willing  to  give  so 
far  as  he  was  able;  but  the  heads  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  ordered  their  own  supplies,  and  at 
the  end  of  1809  the  total  sales  of  powder  to  the 
Government  had  only  amounted  to  about 
thirty  thousand  dollars.1  That  estimate  did  not 
include  the  powder  sent  to  "Indian  agents," 
who  ordered  according  to  their  individual  fan- 
cies and  in  their  own  names,  but  even  so  the 
encouragement  given  by  the  Government 
amounted  to  very  little. 

In  January  of  1809  Irenee  du  Pont  wrote  to 
his  father:  "The  Secretaries  only  employ  me 
when  they  cannot  do  otherwise,  regardless  of 
their  Chief's  wishes.  Things  are  done  here  much 
as  they  are  in  France.  They  have  given  the  re- 

1  Statements  of  gunpowder  sold  by  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours 
and  Co.,  December  31, 1809,  and  December.  1815. 


36  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

fining  of  saltpetre  to  an  apothecary *  who  does 
not  understand  it  at  all  and  who  spoiled  ninety 
thousand  pounds  that  the  Government  gave 
him  to  do.  As  an  excuse  for  giving  him  the 
work,  they  said  that  he  charged  half  a  cent  per 
pound  less  than  I,  and  then  paid  him  exactly 
what  I  had  asked,  and  they  allowed  him  a  loss 
of  eighteen  per  cent  on  saltpetre  that  he  de- 
livered damp,  while  the  fifty  thousand  pounds 
that  I  refined  and  delivered  perfectly  dry  was 
only  allowed  fourteen  per  cent.  Therefore,  be- 
side the  loss  of  the  refining,  which  will  have  to 
be  done  over  if  they  ever  want  to  make  good 
powder  of  his  saltpetre,  the  Government  lost 
more  than  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  saltpetre, 
which  the  apothecary  put  in  his  pocket." 2 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  the  French  share- 
holders were  far  from  pleased  with  the  returns 
on  their  American  investment,  the  growing  im- 
portance of  the  mills  interested  many  specu- 
lative "apothecaries"  and  manufacturers,  who 
knew  that  the  plant  consisted  of  a  few  small 
stone  and  wooden  buildings  and  some  very 
simple  unpatented  machinery.  They  believed 
that  they,  too,  could  turn  some  chemical 

1  Dr.  Hunter,  of  Philadelphia. 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  January  28,  1809. 


A  HISTORY  37 

knowledge  to  practical  purpose.  They  quite 
failed  to  realize  that  Irenee  du  Font's  unusual 
experience  as  both  chemist  and  machinist  was 
the  essential  factor  that  gave  his  powder  "a 
reputation  greater  than  that  of  others." 

As  a  consequence  mills  of  varying  degrees  of 
importance  were  built  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  The  first  powder  made  at  the  Du 
Pont  mills  was  sold  in  kegs  marked  "Brandy- 
wine  Powder  Mills,"  the  name  suggested  by 
his  father.  "In  a  few  years,  about  1808,  a  small 
set  of  works  were  put  up  in  Connecticut  and 
the  place  was  named  by  the  owners  Brandy- 
wine.  Of  course  the  Connecticut  powders  were 
branded  exactly  as  ours  and  we  could  have  no 
recourse  at  law.  Our  mark  was  immediately 
changed  to  Du  Pont ;  it  has  remained  the  same 
ever  since  and  we  feel  pride  in  keeping  it  the 
same."  l  Powder  that  was  below  the  "Du 
Pont"  standard  was  marked  "A.  F.  &  Co." 
Andrew  Fountain  was  the  proprietor  of  a  little 
country  store  near  the  mills,  and  probably  sold 
some  of  the  cheaper  powder. 

One  of  the  new  establishments  seems  to  have 
had  more  patronage  from  Washington  than 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Decem- 
ber 13,  1844. 


38  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Du  Pont  had  been  given.  In  1811  Thomas 
Ewell,  who  was  said  to  have  much  influence 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  built  mills  at 
Bladensburg,  near  Washington,  and  tried  to 
alienate  workmen  from  the  Du  Pont  mills. 
Finding  that  impracticable,  he  offered  Mr.  du 
Pont  "a  connection"  with  his  establishment, 
admitting  that  he  did  not  know  the  mechani- 
cal processes  for  making  powder  although  he 
had  secured  large  contracts  from  "the  ( heads 
of  the  military  departments." l  Such  men  as 
Thomas  Law  2  and  William  Thornton  3  were 
thoroughly  indignant  at  EwelPs  pretensions 
and  urged  Du  Pont  to  build  mills  nearer  to 
Washington,  offering  to  invest  their  own  money 
and  to  find  more  for  such  a  plant.  Thomas  Law 
wrote  to  Bauduy:  "Ewell  has  received  four 
thousand  more  dollars  from  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment. You  remember  the  old  motto  —  In  for  a 
penny,  in  for  a  pound." 4  And  a  few  months 
later:  "I  think  you  are  too  backward;  I  request 

1  Thomas  Ewell  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  December  8,  1811. 

2  Thomas  Law  came  to  America  from  England  in  1794,  and 
invested  largely  in  real  estate  in  the  City  of  Washington.  He 
married  the  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Washington. 

3  William  Thornton  was  one  of  the  architects  of  the  Capitol 
at  Washington;  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  District  of 
Columbia;  and  the  first  Curator  of  the  Patent  Office. 

4  Thomas  Law  to  Peter  Bauduy,  July  16, 181*. 


[FACSIMILE) 


A  HISTORY  39 

you  to  determine  pro  or  con."  1  Mr.  EwelPs  ex- 
periment in  powder-making  did  not  last  long, 
for  though  the  War  of  1812  was  at  hand  he  was 
unable  to  profit  by  the  opportunity  and  he  was 
not  heard  of  after  it.  In  1817  his  mills  at  Bla- 
densburg  were  for  sale  and  Irenee  du  Pont  was 
offered  them,  but  refused  to  buy  them. 

As  early  as  1809  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  England  were  so  strained 
that  in  Mr.  du  Font's  letters  to  his  father  he 
wrote  of  the  probability  of  war  and  the  need  of 
a  sufficient  provision  of  saltpetre.  War  was  not 
declared,  however,  until  June,  1812.  A  month 
later  the  Du  Pont  agent  in  Philadelphia 
wanted  a  hundred  and  sixty  kegs,  "or  more," 
sent  to  him  for  the  outfitting  of  privateers  in 
that  port. 

The  Government  had  ordered  fifty  thousand 
pounds  of  powder  in  the  autumn  of  1811.  In 
1812  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  were  or- 
dered and  in  1813  five  hundred  thousand. 
These  orders  probably  did  not  include  all  the 
powder  made  by  the  Du  Pont  Company  for 
the  Navy.  The  principal  ports  seem  each  to 
have  had  a  "Navy  agent"  who  ordered  for  the 
Government  vessels  as  they  arrived  whatever 

*  Thomas  Law  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  December  25. 1812. 


40  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

supplies  they  might  need.  The  powder  thus 
furnished  was  of  any  make  the  commander  of 
the  ship  preferred,  and  was  bought  from  any 
local  powder  agent,  whose  business  it  was  to 
secure  the  order  for  his  own  firm. 

The  fighting  was  at  first  near  Canada  or  at 
sea  and  did  not  reach  Delaware  until  March, 
when  Mr.  du  Pont  received  the  following  letter 
that  to-day  sounds  more  like  preparation  for 
the  Fourth  of  July  than  a  serious  effort  to  de- 
fend the  coast: 

Wilmington,  March  19,  1813 

DEAR  SIR:  I  this  morning  received  a  letter 
from  Governor  Hazlet  stating  that  considera- 
ble depredations  in  Burning  of  Vessels  &c  are 
committed  by  the  British  Vessels  of  War  about 
Lewes  Town  in  Sussex  and  requests  of  me  to 
forward  him  six  kegs  of  your  best  rifle  powder 
or  such  as  is  used  for  musketry,  perhaps  one  or 
two  of  the  kegs  had  best  be  of  Cannon  powder. 
I  wish  you  to  have  it  sent  in  to  Paul  McGin's 
this  evening  or  early  in  the  morning,  as  we  wish 
to  forward  it  to-morrow  with  some  lead  I  am 
procuring. 

Yours  sincerely 

JOHN  WARNER 
P.S.  Send  me  a  bill  of  the  powder. 


A  HISTORY  41 

General  Stockton  apparently  had  more 
faith  in  artillery  than  had  Mr.  Warner,  and 
three  weeks  later  supplemented  his  order: 

Thursday,  April  8,  1813 

DEAR  SIR:  By  express  from  Governor  Hazlet 
this  morning  at  one  o'clock  the  enemy's  Ship 
Belvedier  had  commenced  cannonading  Lewis 
Town.  In  addition  to  the  number  casks  of 
powder  I  am  directed  to  get  ten  more  of  Can- 
non powder,  please  to  send  them  this  day  to 
Mr.  Dixson's  store. 

JNO.  STOCKTON 

When  the  British  attacked  Washington,  in 
August  of  1814,  about  two  hundred  kegs  of  Du 
Pont  powder  were  in  a  magazine  near  Alexan- 
dria. As  the  English  squadron  was  insistent  in 
its  demands  for  munitions,  the  Du  Pont  agent 
in  Alexandria  asked  the  Government's  protec- 
tion for  the  magazine.  The  Government  im- 
mediately bought  all  the  powder  but  ten  kegs, 
paying  three  thousand  dollars  in  cash,  and 
ordered  more.  In  August  of  that  year  E.  I.  du 
Pont  sent  to  the  Government  arsenal  eighteen 
hundred  and  forty  barrels  of  powder,  and  in 
November  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  thousand 
pounds  —  amounting  to  seventy  thousand 


42  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

dollars;  all  but  eighteen  hundred  dollars  of 
which  was  paid  by  January,  1815.  From  No- 
vember, 1814,  to  February,  1815,  when  peace 
was  declared,  he  had  delivered  six  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  barrels  more,  making  a  further 
$13,740,  of  which  $7601.40  was  still  due  in 
March,  1815. 

The  success  of  the  business  was  now  unques- 
tioned. For  the  first  six  years  the  profits  had 
been  slightly  over  forty-three  thousand  dollars. 
In  1811  E.  I.  du  Pont  wrote  to  his  father,  "The 
profits  of  1810  came  to  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  for  this  year  will  be  between 
forty  thousand  dollars  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars.'*1 He  felt  quite  warranted  in  that  year 
in  helping  his  brother  Victor  to  build,  near  the 
powder  mills,  a  factory  for  the  manufacture 
of  woollen  cloths.  Mr.  Bauduy  also  invested  in 
the  new  enterprise,  as  offering  an  opportunity 
for  his  son,  and  the  cloth  firm  was  established 
under  the  name  that  Mr.  Bauduy  had  proposed 
for  the  powder  company  —  Du  Pont,  Bauduy 
and  Company. 

After  the  war  Irenee  du  Pont  could  probably 
have  paid  all  his  debts  and  enjoyed  the  fruit  of 
his  labor,  but  in  1811  the  Paris  firm  of  Du  Pont 

"     »  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours.  May  26, 1811. 


A  HISTORY  43 

de  Nemours  failed,  with  twelve  shares  in  the 
powder  company  as  its  only  asset. 

The  capital  of  the  powder  company  con- 
sisted of  eighteen  shares  of  two  thousand  dol- 
lars each :  twelve  shares  were  held  by  Du  Pont 
de  Nemours  Pere,  Fils  et  C16,1  though  instead 
of  twenty-four  thousand  dollars,  Irenee  du 
Pont  only  received  $16,470.90  from  his  father; 2 
four  shares  belonged  to  Bauduy;  one  to  Bider- 
mann;  one  to  Duquesnoy.3  But  thirty-six 
thousand  dollars,  even  if  it  had  been  paid, 
proved  to  be  much  too  low  an  estimate  for 
building  and  operating  the  mills,  and  Irenee  du 
Pont  and  Bauduy  borrowed  thirty  thousand 
dollars  more  from  Philadelphia  and  Wilming- 
ton banks  with  which  to  complete  the  plant.  In 
Paris,  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  was  constantly  de- 
scribing Irenee's  great  success,  and  repeatedly 
told  his  shareholders  that  the  powder  company 
would  repay  all  they  had  lost  in  his  company 
and  Victor's.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bidermann, 

1  The  original  commandite,  or  limited  stock-company,  the 
office  of  which  had  been  removed  to  Paris. 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Mme.  Bureaux  de  Pusy,  January  16,  1813. 
This  letter  explains  many  of  the  early  difficulties  of  the  powder 
company. 

*  The  share  originally  belonging  to  Duquesnoy  was  bought 
by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  for  E.  I.  du  Pont  in  1808,  from  Catoire 


44  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

written  on  April  18,  1808,  he  said:  "I  think 
that  after  the  manufactory  has  had  some  im- 
provement and  has  repaid  the  one  hundred 
thousand  francs  that  I  borrowed  for  it,1  each 
share  will  pay  six  hundred  dollars  a  year,  and 
therefore  will  have  a  real  value  of  six  thousand 
dollars.  For  one  cannot  estimate  the  capital  of 
a  manufacture  and  one  so  hazardous  as  gun- 
powder at  more  than  ten  times  its  profit.  But 
even  that  would  be  three  times  the  original 
cost  of  each  share  of  my  company.  And  it  fol- 
lows that  the  twelve  shares  that  my  company 
owns  in  the  powder  company  would  equal 
thirty-six  shares  in  the  company  that  bears  my 
name  —  of  which  I  am  the  head." 

By  the  original  agreement 2  the  shareholders 
had  the  right  to  dissolve  the  powder  company 
and  divide  its  assets  at  the  end  of  1809  —  and 
at  stated  periods  thereafter  —  if  two  thirds  of 
them  notified  Irenee  du  Pont  of  their  wish  to 
do  so  six  months  before  the  specified  date. 

1  This  sum,  equivalent  to  twenty  thousand  dollars,  was  bor- 
rowed from  Prince  Talleyrand.  Irenee  du  Pont  had  not  asked  his 
father  for  money,  and  he  only  received  twelve  thousand  dollars 
of  it;  eight  thousand  dollars  was  spent  in  Paris.  Yet  the  powder 
company  was  charged  with  the  whole  amount.  (E.  I.  du  Pont  to 
Mme.  de  Pusy,  January  16,  1813.) 

2  See  Appendix,  p.  178. 


A  HISTORY  45 

Irenee  had,  however,  the  first  right  to  buy 
their  shares,  at  the  value  given  in  his  previous 
yearly  report.  Neither  Du  Pont  nor  Bauduy 
was  a  trained  accountant,  and  misunderstand- 
ings with  the  shareholders  were  frequent.  But 
the  limit  of  tension  seemed  to  be  reached  when 
at  the  time  of  his  father's  failure  each  one  of 
the  thirty-six  shares  of  his  father's  company 
—  the  commandite  —  was  translated  into  one 
third  of  a  share  in  the  powder  company,1  and 
they  all  demanded  full  and  immediate  pay- 
ment of  their  shares.  Irenee  du  Pont  wrote  let- 
ter after  letter  begging  them  to  wait  until  he 
had  enough  capital  to  keep  supplied  with  raw 
material.  Even  his  father  could  not  realize 
Irenee's  situation  and  the  necessity  of  meeting 
the  notes  that  he  and  Bauduy  had  given  to 
build  their  own  and  Victor  du  Pont's  mills. 
During  the  War  of  1812  letters  to  France  often 
took  six  months  to  reach  their  destination;  and 
conditions  would  entirely  change  while  Du 
Pont  de  Nemours  was  waiting  for  answers  to 
his  questions.  It  became  most  important  for 
the  brothers  that  their  father  should  come  to 
America  to  be  convinced  of  what  they  had  so 
often  written  him  —  that  Bidermann,  Mme. 

*  See  Appendix,  p.  181. 


46  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

de  Stael  (who  had  inherited  from  her  father, 
Necker,  two  shares  in  the  Paris  firm  of  Du 
Pont  de  Nemours),  and  the  other  associes  were 
doing  their  utmost  "to  kill  the  goose  that  lays 
the  golden  eggs  for  us  all." 1 

But  for  the  time  being  persuasion  was  use- 
less. Du  Pont  de  Nemours  could  not  bring  him- 
self to  leave  France  while  his  literary  work  was 
unfinished;  and  in  April,  1814,  Napoleon  abdi- 
cated, the  Bourbons  returned  to  France,  and 
Du  Pont  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Pro- 
visional Government  —  then  Chevalier  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor  and  Counsellor  of  State. 
1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  July  4, 1811 


CHAPTER  V 

1814-1816 

IT^OR  several  years  Du  Pont  and  Bauduy 
JL  had  continued  their  business  relations 
chiefly  because  they  were  devoted  fathers,  and 
their  children,  Victorine  du  Pont  and  Ferdi- 
nand Bauduy,  had  become  engaged  to  be  mar- 
ried. So  little  did  Irenee  du  Pont  like  this  ar- 
rangement that  in  1810  he  encouraged  young 
Bauduy's  desire  to  finish  his  education  in  Eu- 
rope, hoping  that  his  absence  would  end  the 
understanding;  but  Bauduy  returned  in  June 
of  1813  and  married  Miss  du  Pont  the  next 
November.  Only  a  few  weeks  later,  on  the  21st 
of  January,  young  Bauduy  died  of  pneumonia  in 
Mr.  du  Pont's  house.  His  daughter's  passionate 
grief,  as  well  as  that  of  Mr.  Bauduy,  who  was 
for  the  moment  overwhelmingly  grateful  for 
the  care  given  his  son,  touched  Mr.  du  Pont 
very  deeply,  but  the  only  link  that  might  have 
held  him  and  Mr.  Bauduy  together  was  broken, 
and  misunderstandings  and  fault-findings  went 
from  bad  to  worse. 

In  1813  Mr.  du  Pont  bought  from  Thomas 
Lea,  for  forty-seven  thousand  dollars,  the  es- 


48  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

tate  known  as  Hagley,  in  order  to  add  new  pow- 
der mills  which  the  growth  of  the  business  re- 
quired. In  the  summer  of  1814  Bauduy  was 
complaining  of  the  cost  of  the  new  plant,  and 
in  December  of  that  year  Du  Pont  offered  to 
buy  Bauduy's  shares  in  both  the  powder  and 
wool  factories.  A  notification  of  the  change  in 
the  firm  was  sent  to  various  banks  and  agen- 
cies in  January  and  February,  1815 : 

To  DANIEL  BYRNS, 

Cashier  of  the  Bank  of  WiF  &  Brandy6 

Our  present  object  is  to  inform  that  the 
partnership  which  existed  between  Mr.  Peter 
Bauduy  and  ourselves  is  dissolved,  in  conse- 
quence of  our  having  purchased  his  shares  in 
the  concern. 

the  manufacturing  of  gun  Powder  will  con- 
tinue to  be  conducted  as  formerly,  under  the 
same  firm,  by  E.  I.  du  Pont,  whose  only  signa- 
ture please  to  acknowledge  for  the  future. 

Mr.  du  Pont  and  Mr.  Bauduy  held  very  dif- 
ferent opinions  of  the  values  of  the  shares  of 
the  two  plants,  and  legal  arbitration  became 
imperative.  While  the  claims  of  both  men  were 
being  considered,  Du  Pont  learned  to  his 
amazement  that  in  the  previous  June  Bauduy 


A  HISTORY  49 

had  written  confidentially  to  the  French  share- 
holders making  all  kinds  of  accusations  against 
Du  Font's  integrity  as  well  as  his  administra- 
tion of  the  business.  That  was,  of  course,  the 
end  of  all  friendly  relations  between  the  two 
men;  but  it  served  one  excellent  purpose  in 
accomplishing  what  both  Du  Pont  brothers 
had  urged  for  ten  years  —  the  return  of  their 
father  to  America.  Because  of  his  position  in 
the  Government  of  Louis  XVIII  he  did  not 
come  immediately,  though  he  was  anxious  to 
see  for  himself  what  truth  there  could  be  in 
Bauduy's  charges.  In  the  following  March, 
however,  Napoleon  returned  to  Paris,  the 
Bourbon  Government  again  collapsed,  and  in 
May,  1815,  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  was  in  Dela- 
ware, where  he  spent  the  two  years  that  were 
left  of  his  life.  His  presence  was  a  great  help  to 
his  sons.  His  unconquerable  good  spirits,  his 
warm  sympathy,  and  his  fluent  pen  were  now 
on  this  side  of  the  ocean;  and  he  was  as  ready 
to  explain  to  the  French  shareholders  the  diffi- 
culty of  sending  money  from  a  country  that 
was  doing  all  its  business  on  credit  as  he  had 
been  in  insisting  to  his  sons  that  his  creditors 
must  be  paid  immediately  from  the  American 
earnings. 


60  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Another  result  of  Mr.  Bauduy's  letter  was 
that  James  Bidermann  of  Paris,  who  was  one 
of  the  chief  shareholders,  sent  his  son,  Antoine 
Bidermann,  to  America  as  his  representative. 
When  Mr.  Bauduy  retired  from  the  partner- 
ship in  February,  1815,  his  duties,  which  con- 
sisted mainly  in  travelling  about  the  country 
to  see  the  various  agents,  were  assumed  by  Mr. 
Bidermann. 

In  1816  an  Alexandria  newspaper  published 
an  advertisement,  which  with  slight  modifica- 
tions was  printed  in  all  the  large  cities: 

NOTICE.  —  PETER  BAUDUY'S  BEST  GUNPOWDER  ' 
Having  for  thirteen  years  been  concerned  in 
the  manufactory  of  Gunpowder  of  E.  I.  Du- 
pont  (de  Nemours)  and  Co.  and  having  last 
year  withdrawn  from  the  said  concern,  I  have 
established  a  manufactory  of  the  same  article 
under  my  particular  care,  and  beg  leave  to  in- 
form the  public  that  a  constant  assortment  of 
gunpowder  will  be  found  with  my  agent  Mr. 
John  Roberts,  merchant,  of  Alexandria,  which 
will  be  warranted  to  be  of  the  first  quality,  and 
will  be  sold  on  the  most  reasonable  terms. 

PETER  BAUDUY 

Brandywine,  August  25 


A  HISTORY  51 

Mr.  Bauduy  had  received  from  the  powder 
company  $108,690.31  since  1804,  including  the 
purchase  from  him  of  his  four  shares  for  eight 
thousand  dollars;1  but  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  terms  offered  by  Mr.  du  Pont  and 
brought  suit  against  him  in  March,  1816. 
Bauduy  rejected  all  efforts  for  arbitration,  and 
it  was  not  until  April,  1824,  after  many  post- 
ponements, decisions,  and  appeals,  that  the 
case  was  finally  decided  in  Mr.  du  Font's  favor. 

Bauduy's  accounts  were  very  complicated, 
partly  because  "in  return  for  arranging  and 
sustaining  his  credit  he  demanded,  beside  the 
interest  due  on  his  four  shares,  that  he  should 
be  given  a  profit  equal  to  the  interest  on  three 
other  shares  which  had  been  held  in  reserve  by 
the  Company  to  be  given  to  certain  persons 
who  had  an  influence  with  President  Adams 
and  his  Secretary  that  was  supposed  to  be  es- 
sential, but  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  con- 
sider during  the  administration  of  the  upright 
Jefferson."  2 

In  the  meantime  Eden  Park,  Bauduy's  estate 
near  Wilmington,  was  rapidly  being  turned 

1  Statement  of  Profits  and  Interest  received  by  P.  Bauduy 
from  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  and  Company,  January,  1819. 

1  Statement  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  Pere,  to  the  sharehold- 
ers in  his  company,  April  18,  1808. 


52  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

into  a  powder  yard.  The  mills  were  small  and 
driven  by  horse-power;  and  were  as  nearly  as 
possible  copies  of  the  Du  Pont  mills.  The  kegs 
were  marked  "Brandy wine  Powder."  "But," 
wrote  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  "even  though  he 
has  taken  many  of  our  workmen,  though  he 
uses  almost  the  same  machinery  and  methods 
of  mixing  —  no  powder  compares  with  ours  — 
all  because  of  Irenee's  skill  and  his  marvellous 
industry."  1 

1  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  Johannot,  undated,  but  written 
about  May.  1817. 


CHAPTER  VI 

1817-1837 

IN  August  of  1817  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
died  at  his  son's  house  in  Delaware.  Irenee 
du  Pont  was  intensely  fond  of  his  father  and 
felt  his  death  keenly;  and  with  the  personal 
grief  came  increased  anxieties.  His  relations 
with  the  shareholders  of  his  father's  company 
could  no  longer  be  adjusted  by  the  explana- 
tions and  postponements  that  were  so  easy  to 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  whose  cheerfully  philo- 
sophic mind  always  had  an  amazing  ability  for 
proving  that  in  a  short  time  his  shareholders 
would  be  marvellously  enriched  by  their  Amer- 
ican investments.  He  persuaded  the  richer  in- 
vestors in  his  company  to  allow  their  dividends 
to  accumulate,  and  gave  varying  sums  of 
money  as  dividends  to  those  who  were  more  in- 
sistent. At  his  death,  however,  promises  were 
inadequate;  all  the  shareholders  except  Bider- 
mann  demanded  payment  of  their  original  cap- 
ital with  interest.  In  addition  to  that  indebted- 
ness, Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  in  November,  1807, 
had  borrowed  one  hundred  thousand  francs 


54  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

from  Prince  Talleyrand,  in  order  to  relieve 
Irenee  of  the  need  of  constantly  asking  Bauduy 
to  renew  his  notes.  Some  of  the  money  was 
spent  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  in  Paris,  much 
of  it  for  buying  up  shares  in  his  own  and  the 
powder  companies,  but  twelve  thousand  dollars 
of  it  had  been  used  in  the  powder  company  and 
Irenee  du  Pont  accepted  the  responsibility  of 
the  whole  amount,  as  well  as  of  seven  thousand 
francs  borrowed  from  Mme.  de  Stael,  in  1814, 
with  which  he  had  nothing  to  do.  The  money 
paid  to  Bauduy  for  his  share  in  both  the  pow- 
der and  the  wool  mills  had  already  taxed  the 
company's  resources  to  an  alarming  degree; 
and  the  climax  was  reached  when  in  March, 
1818,  five  powder  mills  exploded,  destroying 
almost  the  entire  plant  and  over  eighty-five 
thousand  pounds  of  powder.  The  actual  loss 
was  about  thirty  thousand  dollars.1  The  catas- 
trophe brought  a  temporary  relief,  for  the 
French  creditors  saw  the  uselessness  of  demand- 
ing immediate  payments  and  were  induced  to 
accept  long-term  notes  for  their  shares  in  the 
business. 

Shortly  after  the  War  of  1812  the  Govern- 
ment had  found  itself  in  possession  of  a  large 

>    *  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  LeRoy,  Bayard  &  Co.,  February  12, 1819. 


A  HISTORY  55 

quantity  of  hurriedly  made  or  damaged  pow- 
der, and  offered  it  "on  loan"  to  various  powder 
companies.  E.  I.  du  Pont  took  more  than  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  this 
powder,  which  fortunately  was  not  lost  in  the 
explosion  and  served  to  supply  the  agents  until 
the  mills  were  rebuilt. 

Business  conditions  in  America  were  very 
peculiar  in  those  days.  There  was  infinite  op- 
portunity for  manufacturing  and  very  little 
money  for  investment.  Credit  had  to  be 
stretched  to  the  utmost.  To  quote  a  letter 
written  by  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  a  French 
banker:  "Houses  without  number  have  been 
built  of  paper;  water-power  for  factories  and 
the  factories  themselves  —  of  paper;  canals 
and  roads  —  of  paper;  beautiful  and  useful 
steam-boats  —  of  paper." 1  Good  notes  were 
discounted  at  one  and  a  half  per  cent  a  month; 
and  important  firms  were  constantly  failing, 
among  them  several  Du  Pont  agencies.  Mr.  du 
Pont  estimated  his  losses  from  1817  to  1819, 
from  bankruptcies,  explosions,  etc.,  at  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  from  de- 
terioration of  values  of  real  estate  because  of 
the  general  financial  distress,  at  fifty  thousand 

1  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  Johannot,  May.  1817. 


56  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

dollars  more;  yet  the  powder  company  steadily 
gained  in  strength.  The  reputation  of  the  pow- 
der became  well  established  and  Mr.  du  Pont  was 
liked  and  respected.  He  was  appointed  a  direc- 
tor of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States;  was  con- 
sulted by  those  in  authority  concerning  legis- 
lation for  helping  manufacturers  and  farmers; 
and  his  notes  were  accepted  from  Boston  to 
New  Orleans.  He  made  a  large  part  of  the 
Government  powder;  he  sold  about  twenty-five 
thousand  pounds  a  year  to  the  American  Fur 
Company,  of  which  William  Astor  was  pres- 
ident; he  supplied  many  of  the  West  Indian 
and  South  American  States;  but  all  on  credits 
of  four,  six,  and  eight  months.  In  1824  he  wrote 
from  Philadelphia  to  his  wife:  "It  is  cruel  to 
ride  sixty  miles  every  five  or  six  days  to  meet 
one's  notes,  and  so  to  waste  one's  time  and 
one's  life.  God  grant  that  some  day  I  may  get  to 
the  end  of  it."  He  never  did.  It  was  not  long  after 
his  death  that  the  last  of  the  French  notes  were 
paid  and  that  the  company  became  wholly 
American;  but  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  gave 
a  very  real  proof  of  his  loyalty  to  the  country 
of  his  adoption. 

In  1833  the  Nullification  Party  in  South 
Carolina  deeply  resented  certain  import  duties 


A  HISTORY  57 

ordered  by  Congress.  The  State  threatened  to 
secede  from  the  Union;  and,  through  the  New 
York  agent,  offered  the  Du  Pont  Company 
twenty-four  thousand  dollars  in  cash  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  pounds  of 
cannon  and  musket  powder.  Mr.  du  Pont  an- 
swered: "The  destination  of  this  powder  being 
obvious,  we  think  it  right  to  decline  furnishing 
any  part  of  the  above  order.  When  our  friends  in 
the  South  will  want  sporting  powder  for  peace- 
ful purposes  we  will  be  happy  to  serve  them.'*  l 
Two  months  later  he  himself  wrote:  "Our  E.  I. 
duPont  has  been  in  Washington  assisting  at  the 
treaty  of  peace  between  your  friends,  the  Nulli- 
fiers,  and  ours,  the  monopolist  manufacturers 
of  the  North.  Now  that  the  affair  has  ended  so 
amiably  I  almost  regret  that  we  refused  to  sup- 
ply the  powder.  We  would  be  very  glad  to  have 
that  twenty-four  thousand  dollars  in  our  cash 
box  rather  than  in  that  of  your  army." 2  Per- 
haps the  affair  would  not  have  ended  so  ami- 
ably had  the  powder  been  forthcoming. 

On  the  31st  of  October,  1834,  E.  I.  du  Pont 
died  in  Philadelphia  after  an  illness  of  only  a 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Wm.  Kemble,  January  12,  1833. 
*  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Pitray,  Viel  &  Co.,  of  Charleston,  March 
2,1833. 


58  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

few  hours.  His  business  was  successful;  its  fu- 
ture was  to  be  greater  than  he  could  have 
imagined;  but  the  three  people  for  whose  sake 
he  had  struggled  and  saved,  the  three  he  most 
dearly  loved  —  his  father,  brother,  and  wife  — 
had  died  while  the  struggle  was  still  at  its 
worst.  Good  citizen  though  he  was,  there  were 
times  when  his  heart  ached  for  France,  for  the 
friends  that  he  had  loved,  and  whom  he  never 
replaced.  Of  his  seven  children  only  three  were 
born  in  France  and  the  eldest  was  but  seven 
years  old  when  they  left  there.  His  deep  affec- 
tion for  Antoine  Bidermann,  who  married  his 
second  daughter,  Evelina  du  Pont,  was  partly 
because  Bidermann,  too,  was  a  Frenchman 
and  understood  the  homesickness  that  at  times 
could  not  be  conquered.  His  children  were  de- 
voted to  him  and  he  to  them;  his  neighbors  and 
employees  respected  and  loved  him;  and  his 
daily  work  had  been  free  from  annoyance  and 
contention  since  Bauduy  left.  But  after  thirty- 
three  years  of  anxiety  and  toil,  it  was  hard  that 
he  should  die  just  before  the  last  payments  on 
the  old  debts  were  made,  just  too  soon  to  have 
realized  his  victory. 

For  the  next  three  years  the  business  was 
managed  by  Mr.  du  Font's  son-in-law,  An- 


A  HISTORY  59 

toine  Bidermann,  and  his  eldest  son,  Alfred  du 
Pont.  At  the  end  of  that  time  Mr.  Bidermann 
went  to  France  to  arrange  for  the  final  pay- 
ments to  the  creditors  of  Du  Pont  de  Nemours; 
and  though  he  returned  to  live  for  many  years 
in  America,  he  never  resumed  an  active  part  in 
the  firm.  He  had  been  Mr.  du  Pont's  friend  and 
confidant  for  nearly  twenty  years  and  was 
better  fitted  than  any  one  else  to  administer 
the  estate;  but  that  duty  accomplished,  he 
gave  place  to  E.  I.  du  Pont's  three  sons,  who 
were  well  qualified  to  take  up  their  father's  life- 
work.  The  notifications  of  the  new  partnership 
were  dated  April  1,  1837. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  form  any  estimate 
of  the  firm's  profits  in  the  last  few  years  of  Mr. 
du  Pont's  life.  According  to  his  statements  in 
the  Bauduy  suit,  the  gross  sales  of  powder, 
which  in  1804  were  $10,015.10,  had  in  1812 
(during  the  war)  reached  $148,597.62;  but  in 
the  next  year  they  dropped  to  $107,291.20, 
and  were  still  lower  in  1814.  In  1819  Mr.  du 
Pont  wrote  that  within  two  years  the  company 
had  lost  in  explosions,  bankruptcies,  etc.,  over 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  by 
depreciation  in  real  estate  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars more.  In  1832  he  wrote:  "The  amount  of 


60  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

gunpowder  manufactured  annually  by  us  is  at 
this  time  about  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds.  The  quantity  made  since  the 
establishment  of  the  manufacture  to  the  pres- 
ent time  is  about  thirteen  million  four  hundred 
thousand  pounds." 1 

The  company  also  sold  refined  saltpetre, 
charcoal,  pyroligneous  acid,  iron  liquor  (a  red 
dye),  and  creosote,  or  exchanged  any  of  those 
products  for  crude  saltpetre.  To  keep  supplied 
with  this  essential  ingredient  was  from  the  be- 
ginning the  greatest  difficulty  with  which  Du 
Pont  had  to  deal.  Most  of  the  saltpetre  in  this 
country  was  brought  from  India.  The  Du  Pont 
mills  were  at  first  supplied  by  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  commission  merchants  at  a  cost 
of  about  fifteen  cents  a  pound,  but  at  the  end 
of  1807  the  United  States  declared  an  embargo 
against  England  and  the  importations  could 
not  be  depended  on.  Du  Pont  was  told  that 
saltpetre  had  been  found  in  caves  in  the  west- 
ern part  of  Virginia  and  in  Kentucky,  and  he 
determined  to  go  himself  to  look  for  it.  There 
seemed  to  be  many  possibilities,  if  one  may 
judge  from  the  itinerary  sent  him  from  Alex- 

1  Answers  to  queries  received  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  E.  I.  du  Pont,  April  12,  1832. 


A  HISTORY  r    61 

andria:  "I  would  recommend  to  Mr.  du  Pont 
to  commence  his  researches  for  saltpetre  at 
Franklin  in  Pendleton  County,  and  pursue  his 
route  along  the  foot  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tain, keeping  the  mountain  on  his  right;  from 
Franklin  to  the  warm  springs  in  Bath  County, 
from  thence  to  Fincastle  in  Botetourt  County, 
thence  across  the  Alleghany  mountain  to 
Uniontown,  also  in  Monroe  County.  My 
Knowledge  of  the  saltpetre  country  does  not 
extend  further  than  the  above  direction,  but 
in  this  route  he  can  make  himself  acquainted 
with  the  whole  saltpetre  country."  l  It  was  a 
delightful  trip  that  was  suggested  to  him, 
through  the  most  beautiful  part  of  Virginia. 
The  Warm  Springs  had  been  famous  among  the 
Indians  for  their  health-giving  properties;  and 
Washington  and  the  Custis  family  made  them 
fashionable.  But  it  is  probable  that  Mr.  du  Pont 
never  found  time  for  the  journey.  At  any  rate, 
he  did  not  buy  saltpetre  there. 

During  the  War  of  1812  no  saltpetre  was  im- 
ported, and  that  from  the  Mammoth  Cave  in 
Kentucky  sold  for  thirty-five  cents  a  pound. 
Fortunately,  during  Jefferson's  administra- 

1  A.  C.  Cazenove  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  August  19,  1808;  quoting 
Mr.  John  Roberts. 


62  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

tion  Mr.  du  Pont  had  reminded  the  President 
of  the  difficulty  of  getting  saltpetre  from  India 
in  times  of  war,  and  the  Government,  acting  on 
Du  Pont's  advice,  bought  and  stored  about 
fifty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  it —  an  ultimate 
saving  to  the  Government  of  about  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars. 

After  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  saltpetre  was 
again  brought  from  Calcutta  at  about  seven 
cents  a  pound,  but  the  supply  was  uncertain  in 
both  quantity  and  quality.  As  early  as  1832  Du 
Pont  was  getting  all  possible  information  about 
the  saltpetre  found  "hah* way  between  Val- 
paraiso and  Callao,"  but  was  told  that  "its 
basis  is  nitrate  of  soda  and  it  is  unfit  for  the 
composition  of  gun-powder."  l  In  1838  a  large 
quantity  of  "Peruvian  saltpetre"  was  offered 
in  Boston  at  three  and  a  hah*  cents  when  Indian 
saltpetre  was  at  six,  but  the  Company  refused 
to  take  it. 

The  problem  of  transportation  was  a  diffi- 
cult one.  For  the  first  few  years  everything  was 
shipped  by  sea  and  taken  inland  by  wagons; 
and  the  loss  in  storms  and  from  inadequate  pro- 
tection was  very  great.  During  the  War  of  1812 

1  Lieutenant  Irvine  Shubrick  to  E.  I.  du  Pont,  from  Val- 
paraiso, November  18,  1832. 


PENNSYLVANIA  &  OHIO 
TRANSPORTATION  LINE. 

The  undersigned  proprietors  of  the  above  Line,  will  be  prepared  on  the  opening  of  the 
Canals  (say  from  1st  to  15th  March  next)  to  forward  goods  to  Pittsburg  daily,  via  Schuylkill, 
Union  and  Pennsylvania  Canals  and  Portage  Rail  Road,  in  as  quick  time  and  at  as  low  rates  as 
by  any  other  Line. 

Goods  directed  to  our  care  if  ordered  into  the  Schuylkill,  can  be  received  and  forwarded 
free  of  charge  of  porterage,  &c. 

Freights  and  expenses  paid  on  goods  consigned  to  our  address,  and  forwarded  without  charge 
of  commission. 

JAMES  STEEL  &  Co.  Arch  street  wharf,  SchuyOciU. 
ROYER  &  McLANAHAN,  HoUidaysburg. 

MCDOWELL  &  Co. 


JAMES  vrn;i,T*^e».  and  GEORGE  THLIIOLLV\  Jr.  having  associated  them- 
selves together  under  the  firm  of  JAMES  STEEL  &.  Co.  intend  doing  a  general  Commis- 
sion business  on  the  Schuylkill;  having  a  commodious  Warehouse,  will  be  prepared  to  receive 
and  make  liberal  advances  on  any  articles  consigned  to  them  for  sale. 

JAMES  STEEL  &  Oo. 

Philadelphia  February  SO/A,  1838. 


A  CIRCULAR  RECEIVED  BY  E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  &  CO.  IN  1838 


A  HISTORY  63 

our  coasts  were  patrolled  by  English  gunboats 
and  transportation  by  land  became  imperative. 
Regular  freight  lines  of  wagons  drawn  by  four 
or  five  horses  ran  from  Boston  to  Baltimore  and 
from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh.  Canals  were 
cut  in  every  direction,  greatly  relieving  the  sit- 
uation except  when  there  was  ice;  but  for  sev- 
eral months  of  each  year  powder  could  be 
moved  only  in  wagons,  and  the  freight  added 
materially  to  its  price.  In  1835  the  New  York 
agent  wanted  to  fill  an  order  for  supplying  the 
frigate  Constitution,  then  in  New  York  Har- 
bor, and  as  the  Delaware  River  was  closed  by 
ice,  he  suggested  sending  it  by  the  new  Camden 
and  Amboy  Railroad.1  The  Philadelphia  agent 
was  instructed  to  inquire  about  it,  and  wrote 
to  Bidermann,  then  head  of  the  firm,  that  the 
freight  from  Camden  to  New  York  would  be 
$1.25  per  hundred  pounds  —  as  against  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  a  keg 2  by  schooner  from  Wil- 
mington to  New  York.  He  added:  "Mr. 
Stevens,  the  principal  proprietor  of  the  Rail 

1  Grading  for  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad  was  begun  at 
Bordentown  in  1830.  An  "exhibition  trip"  was  made  in  1831; 
but  the  road  was  not  completed  from  Camden  to  Jersey  City  till 
1839,  when  the  management  announced  that  the  entire  journey 
would  be  made  in  "between  six  and  seven  hours." 

*  A  keg  probably  held  twenty-five  pounds. 


64  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Road  line,  says  that  as  thirty  miles  of  the  Rail 
Road  has  no  horse  track  it  would  be  necessary 
and  unavoidable  that  they  should  use  a  Loco- 
motive Engine  which  should  be  placed  behind 
the  train  of  cars,  so  as  to  propel  instead  of 
drawing  them.  Precaution,  he  said,  would  be 
taken  by  covering  the  cars,  which  are  tight 
roofed  and  sided,  with  cloths  dampened  so  as 
to  prevent  accidents  from  sparks.  When  the 
powder  arrived  at  Amboy  they  would  put  it  on 
board  a  sloop  and  tow  her  to  New  York  by  the 
steam-boat  that  carries  merchandise  and  not 
passengers." l 

1  F.  G.  Smith  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March. 
1835. 


CHAPTER  VII 

1837-1860 

WHEN  Antoine  Bidermann  retired  from 
active  business  in  1837,  Alfred  du 
Pont,  the  eldest  son  of  E.  I.  du  Pont,  and  his 
two  brothers,  Henry  and  Alexis,  formed  a  part- 
nership, still  using  the  original  name  of  the 
firm.  Alfred  had  been  in  the  business  for  nearly 
twenty  years  and  was  fourteen  years  older  than 
Henry,  the  brother  next  to  him  in  age;  he  nat- 
urally assumed  the  direction  of  the  company, 
following  as  closely  as  was  possible  the  methods 
that  he  had  learned  from  his  father.  Thanks  to 
that  father's  industry  and  courage  and  to  the 
financial  skill  of  Mr.  Bidermann,  the  firm  was 
out  of  debt,  and  the  younger  brothers  were 
quite  able  to  relieve  Alfred  of  the  details  of  the 
manufacture.  He  began  at  once  to  improve  his 
equipment.  The  wooden  kegs  for  shipping  pow- 
der, bought  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  were 
of  all  sizes  and  qualities,  and  were  often  alto- 
gether lacking  when  they  were  most  needed. 
His  first  innovation  was  to  bring  coopers  and 
their  machinery  to  the  Brandywine  and  start 
the  manufacture  of  kegs  on  the  premises.  Pow- 


66  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

der  destined  for  New  York  and  New  England 
had  been  loaded  from  small  boats  on  schooners 
near  Marcus  Hook,  but  the  wagons  carrying 
the  powder  did  not  leave  the  mills  until  the 
schooner  signalled  that  it  was  waiting,  and  if 
the  weather  was  bad  and  powder  could  not  be 
loaded  the  vessel  proceeded  and  the  powder 
was  kept  until  another  opportunity  should 
offer.  Agents  objected  to  so  uncertain  an  ar- 
rangement, so  Alfred  du  Pont  built  a  pier  and 
magazine  three  miles  above  Wilmington,  on 
the  Delaware  River;  the  abandoned  magazine 
still  stands  at  Edge  Moor. 

For  the  next  ten  years  such  improvements 
constitute  the  story  of  the  company.  Untiring 
effort  was  necessary  in  order  to  keep  pace  with 
the  growth  of  the  country  —  a  growth  so  rapid 
that  no  financial  system  could  support  it.  Fail- 
ure followed  failure.  "We  have  seen  within  the 
last  four  years  many  sudden  and  heavy  changes 
in  money  matters,  but  the  crisis  of  the  last 
week  exceeds  anything  of  the  kind  it  has  been 
our  lot  to  experience." 1  In  1841,  "All  the  states 
are  insolvent,  if  by  insolvent  we  mean  unable 
to  pay  their  bills." 2  And  the  following  year, 

1  Alfred  du  Pont  to  Wm.  Kemble,  February  7,  1841. 

2  Wm.  Kemble  to  Alfred  du  Pont,  November,  1841. 


f  ^  T-  •'  * ' 


ELDER,   G-ELSTON   &   CO. 

^a^w^a^iir^  &^^BU> 

34  &  36  COMMERCE  STREET  WHARF,  BALTIMORE. 


itlci  Of  C        .    t  '        .. 

Mi  n-Lnmilise.  \ehii:li  ire  jyomtAe  to  fltJiw  In  «Vc 

" 


. 
ritliiii     ---     days,  at  the  uilc  o/'S 


thrf'.!i>inn»  t*tckage*of' 
,     .    -         ,  «ri 

p«"  lOOlbs.  «nd  charge*. 


'v/ 

^-- 


• 

j 


AN  OLD  BILL  OF  LADING 


A  HISTORY  67 

"there  is  a  meeting  of  the  holders  of  bills 
against  the  Government  called  to  take  place  in 
Washington  on  June  twenty-third,"1  which 
meant  delayed  payments  for  powder.  Iron  and 
coal  mines  were  being  discovered  and  blasting 
powder  was  wanted.  The  construction  of  canals 
and  railways  required  it,  and  the  mills  were 
worked  to  their  full  capacity  to  supply  all  the 
demands.  With  new  interests  and  new  indus- 
tries came  new  difficulties  and  disagreements. 
In  1842  Alfred  du  Pont  writes,  "Our  political 
dissensions  are  such  that  it  would  require  the 
enemy  at  our  doors  to  induce  us  to  make  proper 
preparations  for  defence." 2  Three  years  later 
the  enemy  was  at  the  door,  or  perhaps  it  is 
fairer  to  say  we  had  knocked  at  the  door  of  the 
enemy,  who  was  as  unready  as  ourselves. 

War  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico 
began  early  in  1846.  A  few  weeks  later  a 
firm  in  Havana  ordered  two  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  of  powder.  Alfred  du  Pont  sus- 
pected that  it  was  for  Mexico  and  went  to 
Washington  to  consult  the  President;  at  his 
request  and  that  of  "the  Secretaries"3  the 

,!  Wm.  Kemble  to  Alfred  du  Pont,  June  18,  1842. 
*  Alfred  du  Pont  to  Wm.  Kemble,  July  12,  1842. 
1  See  letters  from  Wm.  Kemble  in  June  and  July,  1846. 


68  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

order  was  declined.  Mr.  du  Pont  wrote  to  the 
would-be  purchasers,  "However  unjust  our 
proceedings  may  be,  and  however  shameful  our 
invasion  of  Mexican  territory,  we  cannot  make 
powder  to  be  used  against  our  own  country."  l 
Another  effort  was  equally  unsuccessful:  "Two 
gentlemen,  a  Frenchman  and  a  Spaniard,  the 
former  giving  his  name  as  being  Desache,  have 
applied  for  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  of 
powder,  terms  cash,  and  they  refer,  to  S.  Morris 
Wain  of  Philadelphia  and  to  Harmony  and 
nephew  of  New  York  City.  They  denied  the 
powder  being  wanted  for  Mexico,  but  as  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  for  that  coun- 
try a  prompt  and  decided  refusal  was  given." 2 
The  war  lasted  two  years,  requiring  con- 
stant effort  from  all  three  brothers  to  meet 
changing  conditions  in  the  requirements  for 
army  powder  as  well  as  in  that  for  commercial 
uses.  New  explosives  had  often  to  be  consid- 
ered. The  most  interesting  of  these  was  offered 
them  in  1846.  A  man  named  Schonbein  pa- 
tented in  Europe  and  America  a  product  which 
was  called  "cotton  gunpowder,"  "explosive 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  to  Morrison,  De  Carrick  & 
Co..  May  20,  1846. 

•  Alfred  du  Pont  to  Wm.  Kemble,  June  11,  1846. 


A  HISTORY  69 

cotton,"  "fulminating  cotton,"  or  "gun  cot- 
ton." He  offered  to  sell  the  rights  to  England 
and  to  France,  but  both  countries  refused  it. 
Alfred  du  Pont,  however,  was  sufficiently  in- 
terested to  make  some  gun  cotton  from  a  for- 
mula of  his  own  composition.  He  wrote:  "The 
discovery  is  brilliant  and  such  as  to  create 
astonishment,  but  the  introduction  of  gun  cot- 
ton in  common  use  must  be  the  work  of  time, 
because  the  cost  of  preparing  it  is  high  and  it 
will  require  years  before  the  application  of  ma- 
chinery to  its  manufacture  can  make  it  cheap 
enough." *  That  he  found  time  to  make  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  new  material  before  he  rejected 
it  is  shown  in  a  letter  he  wrote  in  answer  to 
some  of  the  questions  that  were  coming  from 
all  the  powder  agents,  who  were  much  alarmed 
by  newspaper  accounts  of  the  wonderful  inven- 
tion: 

"  The  objections  to  gun  cotton  and  all  other 
preparations  of  the  kind  are  such  as  to  preclude 
its  becoming  suitable  for  gunpowder.  I  shall 
name  a  few,  leaving  out  the  cost  which  must 
under  any  circumstances  be  greater  than  that 
of  gunpowder. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Novem- 
ber 25.  1846. 


70  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

"1st.  The  article  is  more  explosive  than  pro- 
pellant. 

"2d.  It  yields  much  less  gas  than  gunpowder 
and  at  a  lower  temperature;  therefore  any 
given  amount  of  propellant  power  can  only  be 
obtained  by  a  much  greater  strain  on  the  gun 
than  if  powder  was  used. 

"3d.  The  effect  depending  in  a  great  measure 
on  the  quantity  of  common  air  contained  be- 
tween the  fibres  of  the  cotton,  the  compression 
in  the  gun  barrel  must  have  much  influence, 
and  no  certainty  can  be  expected  in  daily  use. 

"4th.  It  imbibes  moisture  with  more  rapidity 
than  common  powder  and  any  moisture  it  im- 
bibes has  a  very  injurious  effect,  unless  it  is 
dried  over  previous  to  being  used.  Powder  is 
generally  used  in  charges  competent  to  effect 
the  purpose  intended  and  these  charges  are 
graduated  so  that  they  will  be  fully  efficient, 
even  with  one  or  two  per  cent  moisture.  This 
is  done  without  risk;  it  is  different  with  gun 
cotton  for  the  least  over  charge  endangers  the 
barrel. 

"5th.  The  propellant  gases  of  gun  cotton  are 
very  acid  and  corrode  the  interior  of  gun  bar- 
rels rapidly. 

"6th.  Gun  cotton  if  used  in  close  places, 


A  HISTORY  71 

such  as  casements,  between  decks  of  ships,  etc., 
would  by  the  vapors  of  nitric  and  nitrous  acid 
it  yields  make  such  place  untenable. 

"Many  other  reasons  could  be  given  which 
would  at  once  convince  any  person  that  gun 
cotton  cannot  come  in  use  for  military  pur- 
poses, but  time  will  not  permit;  there  is,  how- 
ever, a  trifling  experiment  which  will  show  the 
merit  of  the  new  article.  Take  a  small  lock  be- 
tween your  thumb  and  finger,  holding  it  with 
no  more  pressure  than  you  would  hold  a  pen  in 
writing;  fire  one  end  and  you  will  find  that  the 
fire  will  be  cut  off  at  the  point  of  compression, 
the  piece  held  between  the  fingers  remaining 
unburnt;  now,  what  dependence  can  be  placed 
on  a  substance  so  easily  effected  by  pressure? 
Any  person  who  will  fire  gun  cotton  in  the  com- 
mon vacuum  of  an  air  pump,  will  see  at  once 
that  its  power  depends  entirely  on  the  common 
air  contained  between  the  fibres;  it  varying 
according  to  the  vacuum,  or  otherwise  accord- 
ing to  the  compression  used  in  ramming  down 
a  charge,  which  amounts  to  the  same. 

"In  flashing  common  gunpowder  in  a  com- 
mon air  pump  no  difference  can  be  seen  be- 
tween doing  so  when  the  bell  is  full  of  air,  or 
when  a  good  vacuum  is  obtained;  but  in  burn- 


72  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

ing  gun  cotton  it  is  a  very  different  thing,  for  in 
a  bell  where  not  more  than  two  grains  weight 
of  powder  could  be  burnt,  fifteen  or  twenty  of 
gun  cotton  could  be  exploded,  the  mercury  in 
both  instances  standing  a  little  below  one  and 
a  half  inches. 

"ALFRED  DU  PONT"  1 

Many  phrases  in  Mr.  du  Font's  objections 
suggest  a  belief  in  the  future  usefulness  of  gun 
cotton  in  some  form.  He  had  himself  done 
much  to  improve  powder-making.  When  he 
was  twenty-five  years  old,  his  father  wrote: 
"  Alfred  has  just  contrived  a  new  instrument  as 
simple  as  it  is  ingenious  and  has  proved  an  in- 
teresting fact,  which  is  that  there  is  no  relation 
between  the  strength  and  the  quickness  of  gun- 
powder."2 And  a  year  later:  "I  am  confident 
that  my  son  Alfred  has  considerably  improved 
the  manufacture  of  our  Sporting  and  Eagle 
powders";  adding,  "Please,  dear  Sir,  to  receive 
my  thanks  for  the  gratification  your  letter 
gives  me,  which  is  the  greater  from  the  circum- 
stance that  it  is  to  my  son  that  the  compliment 
is  due."8 

1  Correspondence  of  Charles  I.  du  Pont  &  Co.,  Dec.  29, 1847. 
1  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  P.  P.  F.  Degrand,  August  10,  1823. 
*  E.  I.  du  Pont  to  Colonel  George  Gibson,  July  22,  1824. 


A  HISTORY  73 

Even  after  the  administration  of  the  business 
had  become  his  first  duty,  Alfred  du  Pont  was 
an  active  powderman,  often  in  the  mills,  exper- 
imenting in  the  laboratory,  and  deeply  inter- 
ested in  any  discovery  that  could  improve  the 
manufacture.  Thirty  years  of  hard  work  wore 
him  out  as  it  had  his  father;  in  1847  a  severe 
explosion  with  a  loss  of  eighteen  lives  was  a 
serious  blow  to  him;  and  in  1849  he  began  to 
find  his  burden  very  heavy.  He  wrote:  "A  fabri- 
cation of  over  ten  thousand  pounds  of  powder 
per  day,  and  all  the  mills  going  the  twenty-four 
hours  through  (fourteen  of  which  are  by  lamp- 
light) is  no  small  care,"1  and,  "We  will  this 
year  have  made  over  four  hundred  thousand 
pounds  of  powder  more  than  in  1848." 2 

In  1850  Alfred  du  Pont  gave  up  the  manage- 
ment to  his  brother  Henry,  with  whom  began 
a  new  regime.  Alfred  had  gone  to  school  in 
Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  and  had  afterwards 
studied  in  Philadelphia;  but  he  had  always 
been  near  home,  had  grown  up  on  the  Brandy- 
wine,  and  had  worked  with  his  father  for  seven- 
teen years.  Henry  du  Pont  had  gone  from 
boarding-school  to  West  Point;  had  then  served 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Novem- 
ber 21,  1849. 
8  Ibid.,  December  20,  1849. 


74  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

in  the  Army,  and  had  resigned  and  joined  his 
brothers  only  five  months  before  their  father's 
death  in  1834.  He  had  worked  loyally  under 
Alfred  and  cheerfully  accepted  his  decisions, 
but  when  his  turn  came  to  take  command  of  the 
office  after  sixteen  years  in  the  mills,  he  brought 
all  the  efficiency  of  his  West  Point  training  to 
bear  on  the  task  before  him.  He  studied  the 
growth  of  the  West  and  put  new  agencies  where- 
ever  he  believed  that  new  markets  might  be 
created;  he  required  the  payment  of  old  loans 
that  had  held  over  from  his  father's  time;  he 
conquered  many  of  the  difficulties  of  packing 
and  shipping;  he  made  economic  arrangements 
with  other  powder  companies  and  so  avoided 
extravagant  competition.  He  never  ignored  any 
complaint  of  the  quality  of  powder,  but  he  was 
not  eager  to  experiment  with  new  methods.  He 
wrote  to  the  various  agents  that  he  was  satis- 
fied that  the  powder  could  not  be  improved; 
the  reduction  of  its  price  was  to  be  the  impor- 
tant consideration. 

When  Henry  du  Pont  became  head  of  the 
firm  in  1850,  the  other  partners  were  his  bro- 
ther Alexis  and  their  nephew,  Eleuthere 
Irenee  du  Pont,  whose  younger  brother,  Lam- 
mot,  had  just  finished  his  studies  and  was  in 


A  HISTORY  75 

the  mills;  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  firm  till 
the  early  part  of  1857. 

Alexis  and  Irenee  du  Pont  were  able,  effi- 
cient, hard- working  men.  They  built  new  mills, 
they  supervised  their  workmen  patiently  and 
methodically  and  according  to  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  the  firm.  Irenee  du  Pont  made  a  not- 
able improvement  by  suggesting  that  powder 
be  packed  in  metallic  kegs  instead  of  wooden 
ones,  and  experimented  indefatigably  until  he 
found  a  suitable  model,  which  was  patented; 
apart  from  this  he  was,  like  his  uncles,  content 
to  work  by  the  methods  to  which  he  was  ac- 
customed. 

The  new  management  soon  had  its  great 
opportunity.  In  1854  the  Crimean  War  de- 
manded more  powder  than  the  mills  of  England 
and  France  could  supply  and  large  quantities 
were  bought  by  the  English  Government  from 
the  Du  Pont  Company.  The  profits  from  this 
transaction  so  strengthened  the  finances  of  the 
firm  that  its  members  had  no  misgivings  as  to 
their  safety  during  the  panic  of  1857,  or  the  up- 
heaval of  the  Civil  War,  though  at  that  time 
they  lost  heavily  through  their  Southern 
agents,  and  Government  payments  were  long 
delayed. 


76  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

In  May  of  1854  there  occurred  an  accident 
which,  happening  as  it  did  in  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal streets  of  Wilmington,  attracted  much 
more  attention  than  if  it  had  been  more  serious, 
but  at  a  more  isolated  place.  Three  wagons  con- 
taining four  hundred  and  fifty  kegs  of  powder 
exploded  on  their  way  to  the  Du  Pont  pier; 
the  three  drivers  and  twelve  horses  were  in- 
stantly killed,  as  were  two  men  who  happened 
to  be  near  by.  While  the  cause  of  the  explosion 
was  never  proved,  it  was  probably  the  careless- 
ness of  one  of  the  drivers.  The  newspapers 
were  filled  with  very  exaggerated  accounts  of 
its  effects,  and  all  through  the  country  laws 
were  passed  prohibiting  the  carrying  of  powder 
through  cities;  a  precaution  of  which  every  one 
recognized  the  wisdom,  but  which  added  im- 
mensely to  the  difficulties  of  the  shippers. 

Three  years  later,  on  the  23d  of  August, 
1857,  Alexis  du  Pont  was  superintending  the 
dismantling  of  a  mill  in  Hagley  yard  when  the 
moving  of  a  heavy  bin  caused  a  slight  explosion 
from  which  the  loose  powder  carried  a  spark  to 
an  adjoining  mill.  In  his  effort  to  put  out  the 
fire,  Mr.  du  Pont  gave  no  thought  to  the  great 
danger.  The  mill  blew  up,  wounding  him  fatally 
with  several  of  his  men.  He  lived  many  hours, 


A  HISTORY  77 

» 

and  in  spite  of  great  weakness  and  pain,  in- 
sisted on  seeing  the  men  who  worked  in  the 
yards;  bidding  each  one  in  turn  good-bye. 

In  1858  Alfred  du  Pont  died.  Like  his 
brother  Alexis,  his  relations  with  the  men  in  his 
employ  were  almost  paternal  in  their  interest 
and  affection.  A  letter  taken  from  his  corre- 
spondence with  one  of  the  Company's  agents 
perhaps  best  shows  the  gentleness  of  his  nature 
and  the  reason  for  the  grief  of  his  men  at  his 
death:  "Will  you  please  oblige  our  Alfred  du 
Pont  by  inquiring  from  Mr.  West,  the  lumber 
merchant  who  assisted  in  procuring  the  boards 
he  wanted,  the  name  of  the  carpenter  who  so 
kindly  assisted  our  A.  du  P.  in  selecting  the 
boards?  His  name  has  escaped  our  memory, 
but  his  kindness  and  gentlemanly  conduct  have 
not;  and  he  being  fond  of  shooting,  we  wish  to 
send  him  a  few  pounds  of  our  powder  as  a 
slight  return." l 

Such  a  letter  needs  no  comment  —  and  his 
life  was  full  of  that  kind  of  consideration  and 
courtesy.  He  was  never  a  robust  man,  and  for 
the  last  eight  years  of  his  life  he  lived  in  the  re- 
tirement of  a  semi-invalid,  though  at  his  death 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  to  Z.  H.  Gooch,  September 
11,  1844. 


78  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

he  was  only  sixty  years  old.  Even  after  he  gave 
up  his  active  place  in  the  Company  his  knowl- 
edge and  experience  were  always  at  the  service 
of  his  brothers  and  were  invaluable  to  his  sons. 

Henry  du  Pont  and  the  two  sons  of  Alfred 
du  Pont  were  the  only  members  of  the  firm  af- 
ter Alexis  du  Font's  death.  The  younger  of 
them,  Lammot,  was  as  enthusiastic  a  powder- 
man  as  his  uncle  was  an  astute  financier.  They 
developed  the  business  with  amazing  rapidity, 
but  always  on  a  sure  foundation.  In  1853,  four 
years  after  he  had  finished  his  studies,  all  ques- 
tions of  fault  in  the  composition  of  powder, 
complaints  of  miners,  and  the  like,  were  re- 
ferred to  "our  chemist,  Lammot  du  Pont," 
and  his  corrections  and  explanations  were  al- 
ways adequate.  In  1857  he  was  granted  a  pat- 
ent that  made  possible  the  use  of  nitrate  of 
soda  instead  of  saltpetre  for  manufacturing 
blasting  powder. 

In  1831  Lieutenant  Irvine  Shubrick,  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  was  ordered  to  Chili,  and 
at  the  request  of  E.  I.  du  Pont,  whose  niece 
Lieutenant  Shubrick  had  married,  he  investi- 
gated the  newly  discovered  "Peruvian  salt- 
petre." His  report  is  interesting,  and  satisfied 
Mr.  du  Pont  that,  as  powder  was  then  made, 


A  HISTORY  79 

the  nitrate  would  be  of  no  use  to  him.1  Lieu- 
tenant Shubrick's  letter  was  dated  from  the 
"U.  S.  Ship  Potomac,  Valparaiso,  November 
18,  1832,"  and  he  wrote:  "The  saltpetre  is 
produced  in  the  province  of  Tarrapaca  and 
embarked  at  the  port  of  Iquique,  a  small  port 
in  the  latitude  of  21°  40'  south  and  longitude 
70°  00'  west,  a  little  more  than  halfway  be- 
tween this  place  and  Callao.  It  is  said  here  that 
its  basis  is  nitrate  of  soda  and  unfit  in  the  com- 
position of  gun  powder,  and  that  in  France  it 
is  principally  used  for  acids,  glassware,  soap, 
&c.  It  is  thought  that  the  province  of  Tarra- 
paca could  produce  as  much  as  might  be  de- 
manded for  all  Europe  or  any  other  destination, 
but  the  present  establishments  do  not  yield 
more  than  80,000  quintals  annually.  The  prin- 
cipal mines  are  about  eight,  ten  and  twelve 
leagues  from  the  sea,  and  it  may  be  said  are 
productive  from  the  surface  of  the  earth.  It  is 
subjected  to  a  simple  process  of  purification 
which  consists  only  in  separating  the  salt  from 
the  earth.  What  is  generally  sold  contains 
about  four  per  cent  extraneous  parts,  whereof 
one  and  a  half  and  two  per  cent  humidity.  The 
quantity  exported  June,  1830,  to  the  present 

1  See  Appendix,  p.  182. 


80  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

time  is  computed  at  90  to  95,000  quintals. 
The  present  price  is  $4  per  quintal  in  bags  de- 
livered into  the  ship's  boats,  which  in  addition 
to  the  freight  from  this  to  the  United  States 
would  make  the  cost  greater  than  the  amount 
stated  in  your  letter  of  August,  1831.  The 
saltpetre  now  is  a  regular  business,  and  all 
French  ships  from  this  to  France  are  freighted 
with  it." 

Lammot  du  Font's  discovery  of  a  way  of 
making  powder  from  this  unfailing  source  of 
supply  so  cheapened  the  cost  of  materials  that 
his  powder  was  in  great  demand  at  all  mines. 
The  resultant  expansion  of  business  altered 
the  Du  Pont  policy  of  building  no  mills  except 
those  that  the  members  of  the  firm  could  per- 
sonally supervise. 

The  great  market  for  blasting  powder  was  in 
the  anthracite  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
inasmuch  as  the  ever-increasing  need  of  pow- 
der made  new  mills  necessary,  the  logical  place 
for  them  was  nearer  the  market.  Mills  had 
been  built  in  1858  by  Parrish,  Silver  &  Co.,  in 
Luzerne  County,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  Big 
Wapwallopen  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Susque- 
hanna  River,  but  were  not  successfully  oper- 
ated. A  year  later  they  were  bought  for  the 


A  HISTORY  81 

purpose  of  making  Lammot  du  Font's  new 
soda  powder,  and  were  rebuilt  and  managed 
under  his  direction.  Once  before  the  company 
had  controlled  an  outside  plant  —  E.  I.  du 
Pont  had  built  one  in  Louisiana  in  1804  in  or- 
der to  make  a  place  for  a  troublesome  employee, 
but  in  1811  the  man  died  and  the  money  in- 
vested was  lost.  Several  capitalists  suggested 
to  Mr.  du  Pont  after  the  War  of  1812  that  they 
were  willing  to  invest  in  mills  to  be  built  near 
Washington,  but  the  Louisiana  venture  had 
convinced  him  that  the  successful  manage- 
ment of  one  plant  required  all  his  energy,  and 
he  refused  even  to  consider  another.  "Wap- 
wallopen"  was  bought,  however,  not  from  an 
effort  to  create  a  new  market,  but  to  supply 
more  economically  a  market  that  was  rapidly 
growing  and  constantly  clamoring  for  sup- 
plies. It  was  not  a  large  factory  with  its  output 
of  thirty-five  thousand  kegs  a  year,  but  it 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  condition.  The 
mills  on  the  Brandy  wine  were  insufficient;  for 
the  future  there  must  be  considered  not  only 
the  economic  shipping  of  powder,  but  the  pos- 
sibility of  building  plants  in  such  localities  that 
the  difficulties  of  transportation  would  be  less- 
ened. Visitors  to  Wilmington  were  inclined  to 


82  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

smile  at  the  teams  of  six  mules  which  drew 
great  wagons  loaded  with  powder  as  far  west  as 
Pittsburgh  —  a  six  weeks'  journey  —  long 
after  railways  were  carrying  every  other  kind 
of  merchandise,  but  there  were  many  times 
when  in  no  other  way  could  powder  be  carried. 
Railways  often  refused  to  take  it,  or,  worse, 
announced  that  for  the  safety  of  the  road 
"friction  matches  will  not  be  carried  except  in 
the  cars  that  carry  gunpowder"; l  canals  froze 
and  for  months  the  boats  did  not  move;  nerv- 
ous captains  of  coasting  schooners  would  not 
have  powder  on  their  boats,  or,  as  often  hap- 
pened, threw  it  overboard  if  a  thunderstorm 
threatened.  The  mules,  however  slow,  were 
sure. 

In  1858  Lammot  du  Pont  spent  three  months 
in  Europe  in  order  to  visit  the  manufactures, 
arsenals,  etc.,  in  England,  France,  and  Bel- 
gium, all  of  which  had  been  more  or  less  mod- 
ified by  the  experience  of  the  Crimean  War. 
He  came  back  filled  with  eagerness  for  the 
improvement  of  munitions  of  war  in  this  coun- 
try, and  for  some  years  he  worked  in  coopera- 
tion with  Major  Hagner  and  Captain  Rod- 

»  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.  to  B.  T.  Elder  &  Co, 
February  23. 1853. 


A  HISTORY  83 

man,  all  three  of  them  giving  their  utmost 
knowledge  and  ingenuity  to  make  a  military 
powder  that  should  be  the  best  in  the  world. 

The  development  of  special  powders  for 
large  ordnance  began  about  1852,  when  Cap- 
tain Dahlgren  suggested  that  coarser  powder 
than  was  then  being  made  would  be  more  effi- 
cient for  the  Navy  guns.  The  size  of  the  grain 
was  materially  increased,  but  it  was  not  until 
1859  that  officers  of  the  Army  became  satisfied 
that  the  powder  must  be  radically  changed,  in 
order  to  be  adaptable  to  the  new  guns.  Henry 
du  Pont  advised  powder  grained  to  one  inch  in 
diameter,  and  presumably  it  was  tried;  but 
Captain  Rodman  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
result,  and  he  experimented  with  various  kinds 
of  powder  at  the  Frankford  Arsenal.  On  No- 
vember 22,  1860,  he  wrote  that  he  wanted  the 
Du  Pont  Company  to  make  "for  guns  of  24 
Ibs.  and  over,  cartridges  composed  of  perforated 
cakes  of  powder  from  one  to  two  inches  thick 
—  each  cake  to  be  in  diameter  about  one  quar- 
ter of  an  inch  less  than  the  bore  of  the  gun  in 
which  it  is  to  be  used.  In  very  large  guns  the 
cakes  may  be  made  hexagonal  instead  of  circu- 
lar, in  which  case  seven  cakes  would  form  a 
layer  —  this  was  the  form  of  cake  used  in  the 


84  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

15  in.  gun.1  In  the  cakes  used  in  the  15  in.  gun 
the  holes  were  one  quarter  in.  in  diameter  and 
.6  in.  apart  from  center  to  center,  leaving  the 
walls  of  powder  between  the  holes  about  .35  in. 
thick.  This  thickness  of  walls  was  too  great 
even  for  the  15  in.  gun,  as  the  powder  was  not 
all  burned  in  the  gun.  I  do  not  see  why  your  in- 
corporated materials,  in  the  same  form  as  they 
go  to  the  ordinary  press  to  be  pressed  into 
cakes  for  graining,  would  not  be  suitable  for 
entering  the  moulds  for  being  pressed  into  per- 
forated cakes.  If  this  would  answer,  it  would 
save  the  expense  of  pressing  into  cakes  and  of 
granulation  or  mealing.  The  cakes  used  in  the 
15  in.  gun  were  made  of  ordinary  cannon  pow- 
der after  the  addition  to  it  of  about  3  per  cent 
of  moisture.  It  worked  perfectly  well." 

Doubtless  Captain  Rodman's  powder  did 
"perfectly  well"  for  experimental  work,  but  it 
was  long  before  the  proper  composition  and 
machinery  could  make  it  in  quantities  for  war 
needs.  Six  months  after  that  letter  was  written, 
and  while  he  and  Lammot  du  Pont  were  work- 
ing to  perfect  his  "cakes,"  South  Carolina  se- 
ceded; and  in  April  of  1861  the  country  was  at 
war.  There  was  no  time  then  for  making  ex- 

1  In  his  own  experiments  at  the  Frankford  Arsenal. 


A  HISTORY  85 

periments;  the  Government  had  no  proper 
supply  of  munitions;  and  new  inventions  had 
to  wait  for  their  development  till  immediate 
needs  had  been  met. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

1861-1865 

THE  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  No- 
vember of  1860  was  a  very  definite  noti- 
fication to  the  Southern  States  that  a  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  opposed  the 
extension  of  slavery.  In  December  South  Caro- 
lina seceded  from  the  Union;  in  February  Jef- 
ferson Davis  was  inaugurated  as  President  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy;  in  March  he  or- 
dered that  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand 
men  should  be  raised.  But  it  was  not  till  Fort 
Sumter  was  taken  by  the  Confederate  forces  in 
April,  1861,  that  any  preparation  seems  to 
have  been  made  by  the  Northern  States  either 
for  an  army  or  for  munitions  for  the  struggle 
which  no  one  expected  to  last  more  than  a  few 
months  —  and  which  racked  the  country  for 
four  years. 

Two  days  after  the  fall  of  Sumter  the  Du 
Pont  Company  again  gave  proof  of  its  loyalty 
to  the  Government  in  a  letter  to  the  Richmond 
agent:  "With  regard  to  Colonel  Dimmock's 
order  we  would  remark  that  since  the  inaugura- 


"A  HISTORY  87 

tion  of  war  at  Charleston,  the  posture  of  Na- 
tional affairs  is  critical,  and  a  new  state  of  af- 
fairs has  arisen.  Presuming  that  Virginia  will 
do  her  whole  duty  in  this  great  emergency  and 
will  be  loyal  to  the  Union,  we  shall  prepare  the 
powder,  but  with  the  understanding  that 
should  general  expectation  be  disappointed 
and  Virginia,  by  any  misfortune,  assume  an 
attitude  hostile  to  the  United  States  we  shall 
be  absolved  from  any  obligation  to  furnish  the 
order." 

In  May,  1861,  Henry  du  Pont  was  appointed 
Major-General  of  the  forces  in  Delaware,  a 
position  for  which  his  West  Point  education 
had  well  fitted  him.  The  situation  of  the  mills 
in  a  State  of  which  the  loyalty  was  at  first 
doubtful,  and  their  value  to  the  Government, 
made  it  imperative  that  they  should  be  intelli- 
gently protected;  for  that  purpose  two  com- 
panies were  organized  from  the  men  employed 
by  the  Du  Ponts;  their  captains  were  Lammot 
du  Pont  and  Hugh  Stirling.  In  July,  1863,  an 
effort  was  made  by  the  Confederates  to  seize 
the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Baltimore 
Railroad  at  a  point  between  Philadelphia  and 
Baltimore.  A  troop  of  cavalry  reached  Gun- 
powder Bridge,  in  Maryland,  but  was  driven 


88  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

back  by  Delaware  troops,  the  Du  Pont  com- 
panies among  them.  A  year  later  one  of  the  Du 
Pont  companies  was  sent  to  help  guard  the 
railroad  which  was  again  threatened.  Confed- 
erate raids  were  not  the  only  danger;  on  one 
occasion  two  men,  who  proved  to  be  disguised 
officers  from  the  Southern  army,  were  stopped 
within  half  a  mile  of  the  mills.  In  the  four  years 
between  1861  and  1865  there  were  seven  ex- 
plosions from  "unknown  causes"  in  which 
thirty-nine  men  were  killed  and  much  powder 
and  machinery  destroyed.  Such  catastrophes 
occur  so  much  less  often  in  times  of  peace,  and 
are  so  helpful  to  the  enemy  in  times  of  war, 
that  one  hesitates  to  use  the  word  "accident" 
in  describing  them. 

The  Southern  States  were  importing  excel- 
lent English  powder,  and  in  order  to  make  an 
explosive  that  should  be  better  than  that  of  the 
enemy,  Lammot  du  Pont,  reenforced  in  1861 
by  his  cousin,  Eugene  du  Pont,1  worked  night 
and  day;  but  their  experiments  soon  had  a  seri- 
ous interruption. 

The  Government  had  very  little  powder  and 
could  not  pay  for  any  until  special  appropria- 
tions were  made;  whereas  all  the  raw  materials 

1  The  eldest  son  of  Alexis  I.  du  Pont. 


A  HISTORY  I  S9 

had  to  be  paid  for  in  cash.  Late  in  1861  there 
was  but  a  small  quantity  of  saltpetre  in  Amer- 
ica and  it  was  feared  that  England's  sympathy 
with  the  Confederacy  might  result  in  closing 
the  East  India  market  to  the  Union.  The  Du 
Pont  Company  could  not  possibly  buy  enough 
saltpetre  to  assure  their  supply  in  such  an 
emergency,  and  in  November  Lammot  du 
Pont  went  to  Washington  to  explain  the  situa- 
tion to  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy. 
They  authorized  him  to  go  at  once  to  England 
and  buy  a  large  quantity  of  saltpetre  for  the 
Government.  To  avoid  publicity  it  was  all  to 
be  purchased  in  the  name  of  the  Du  Pont  firm 
and  by  their  usual  brokers.  Mr.  du  Pont 
reached  London  on  the  19th  of  November, 
1861.  He  had  some  trouble  about  his  credit,  for 
he  was  known  only  at  Brown,  Shipley  and 
Company,  and  without  notifying  him,  the 
Government  funds  on  which  he  was  to  draw 
had  been  sent  to  Baring  Brothers.  When  that 
difficulty  was  overcome,  he  bought  in  one  day 
for  the  United  States  Government  and  his  own 
firm  all  the  saltpetre  that  was  for  sale  in  Eng- 
land —  about  two  thousand  tons,  and  much 
that  was  on  its  way  from  India;  arranged  for 
ships  in  London,  Liverpool,  and  Greenock;  and 


90  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

began  loading  his  cargoes  on  the  28th;  nine 
days  after  his  arrival. 

In  the  meantime  the  British  Government 
was  informed  that  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell, 
Commissioners  from  the  Confederate  States  on 
their  way  to  England,  had  been  taken  from  an 
English  vessel,  the  Trent,  and  imprisoned  in 
Boston  on  November  19  in  defiance  of  interna- 
tional law,  but  with  the  approval  of  the  United 
States  Congress.  The  immediate  surrender  of 
Mason  and  Slidell  was  demanded  by  England; 
and  an  embargo  on  the  exportation  of  saltpetre 
stopped  Lammot  du  Font's  cargoes  before  they 
were  loaded.  There  was  nothing  for  him  to  do 
but  return  home  at  once;  letters  were  uncertain 
and  there  was  no  other  means  of  communica- 
tion. He  sailed  on  the  7th  of  December  and  was 
again  in  Washington  on  the  26th;  there  he  was 
given  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State  urg- 
ing Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  American 
Minister  in  London,  to  do  all  in  his  power  "for 
the  relief  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  and  Co." 
He  sailed  again  for  England  on  the  1st  of  Janu- 
ary, 1862,  as  did  Mason  and  Slidell,  the  Ameri- 
can Government  having  admitted  the  impro- 
priety of  their  seizure.  Mr.  du  Pont  wrote  from 
England  on  the  13th  that  the  embargo  would 


A  HISTORY  91 

probably  be  removed  within  a  week.  It  was  re- 
moved on  the  18th;  the  interrupted  loading 
was  resumed,  and,  the  political  crisis  having 
passed,  Mr.  du  Pont  arranged  for  the  sale  in 
England  of  some  of  the  saltpetre  bought  for  his 
firm.  He  returned  to  this  country,  sailing  from 
England  on  the  1st  or  2d  of  February,  1862, 
and  arriving  in  Wilmington  on  the  15th.  The 
first  of  the  vessels  carrying  the  saltpetre  sailed 
on  the  2d,  the  other  four  soon  after.1  The  se- 
crecy of  the  whole  transaction  and  Lammot 
du  Font's  hurried  and  unexplained  journeys 
were  perhaps  some  excuse  for  the  very  remark- 
able accounts  of  it  that  have  found  their  way 
into  print  —  accounts  for  which  Mr.  du  Font 
was  certainly  not  responsible,  but  of  which 
many  were  too  grotesque  to  be  worth  contra- 
diction. It  was  a  very  important  mission  to  en- 
trust to  the  youngest  member  of  the  firm,  and 
was  accomplished  so  successfully  that  in  less 
than  a  year  the  Government  again  authorized 
the  company  to  buy  saltpetre;  but  conditions 
had  changed  and  the  purchase  was  left  to  their 
London  brokers. 

As  soon  as  he  had  returned  from  England, 

1  The  amount  paid  by  the  Government  for  this  saltpetre  was 
£79,699,  10s  8d. 


92  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Lammot  du  Pont  was  again  experimenting  for 
the  improvement  of  both  military  and  blasting 
powder;  he  made  frequent  journeys  to  Wash- 
ington, New  York,  and  Wapwallopen,  where 
he  supervised  all  the  work;  and  in  May,  June, 
and  July,  1863,  he  was  on  duty  with  his  com- 
pany of  Delaware  militia.  In  August,  on  his 
way  from  Wapwallopen  to  New  York,  he  was 
suddenly  taken  ill  and  hurried  home,  where 
for  two  months  he  suffered  a  severe  attack  of 
typhoid  fever.  When  he  was  considered  con- 
valescent his  eyes  became  troublesome,  and 
another  month  passed  before  he  could  get  back 
to  active  work.  Then  he  tried  to  make  up  for 
lost  time  with  the  not  surprising  result  that  he 
was  in  bed  with  an  acute  attack  of  rheumatism 
in  June  and  July  of  1864. 

When  war  was  declared  Henry  du  Pont 
wrote  to  one  of  the  agents,  "The  extra  demand 
for  powder  for  war  purposes  will  not  equal  the 
regular  demand  which  would  have  existed  had 
peace  continued."  *  There  can  be  no  doubt  of 
the  correctness  of  his  prophecy.  Of  course  no 
explosives  could  be  sent  to  the  Southern  or 
Southwestern  States,  where  the  Du  Pont 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May  6, 
1861. 


A  HISTORY  93 

agents  had  sold  large  quantities  of  both  blast- 
ing and  sporting  powder.  None  could  be  ex- 
ported from  New  York  or  Philadelphia,  lest  it 
should  be  captured  at  sea  and  used  to  supply 
the  Southern  armies;  this  order  cut  off  ship- 
ments to  the  West  Indian  Islands  and  Mexico, 
and  for  a  time  those  to  California,  where  since 
1849  an  important  agency  had  existed.  The 
miners  of  the  Western  coast  had  no  other 
means  of  getting  their  powder,  and  by  October, 
1863,  the  situation  had  become  so  critical  that 
the  Collector  of  the  Port  of  San  Francisco  tele- 
graphed the  Secretary  of  War  that  unless  pow- 
der was  sent  promptly  the  supply  of  gold 
would  stop.  Before  the  needs  of  the  market 
could  be  met,  California  capitalists  had  raised 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  organized 
the  California  Powder  Works,  which,  with 
Chinese  labor  and  saltpetre  brought  from  In- 
dia across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  took  much  of  the 
business  from  the  Eastern  manufacturers. 

The  difficulty  of  getting  saltpetre  again  be- 
came serious.  Lammot  du  Pont's  purchases  in 
England  were  for  supplying  powder  for  a  war 
that  might  last  for  six  months;  by  1863  the 
stock  was  exhausted.  When  a  pound  sterling 
was  valued  at  thirteen  dollars  and  all  saltpetre 


94  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

came  from  the  English  market,  some  other 
means  of  supply  became  imperative.  Lammot 
du  Font's  nitrate  of  soda  powder  made  salt- 
petre unnecessary  for  blasting,  but  there  was 
nothing  to  take  its  place  for  military  powder. 
Samples  of  "nitrous  earth"  were  sent  by 
agents  from  Tennessee  and  Missouri;  two 
caves  of  such  earth  "several  miles  in  extent" 
were  for  sale  in  Mexico;  a  mine  in  Tennessee 
that  "will  give  five  tons  a  day"  was  offered  for 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars;  but  the  sam- 
ples were  not  satisfactory,  and  in  May,  1863, 
Henry  du  Pont  wrote  to  the  brokers  in  Cal- 
cutta who  ordinarily  supplied  the  Company: 
"The  manufacture  of  saltpetre  has  been  com- 
menced in  this  country  in  several  places;  at  the 
present  high  rates  for  East  India  nitre  it  will 
pay  well;  the  article  being  made  by  chemical 
decomposition,  it  comes  out  pure,  which  is  a 
great  advantage."  A  year  later  he  wrote:  "The 
manufactured  saltpetre  is  made  from  nitrate  of 
soda  and  potash.  It  sells  at  the  same  price  as 
East  India  saltpetre.  It  is  not  popular  with 
powder  manufacturers,  but  when  saltpetre  is 
scarce  it  sells  pretty  well." l 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  October 
80,  1864. 


A  HISTORY  95 

In  March,  1862,  Lammot  du  Pont  went  to 
Washington  in  an  attempt  to  modify  a  bill  for 
the  taxation  of  gunpowder  which  had  also  a 
clause  providing  for  the  manufacture  of  pow- 
der by  the  Government.  It  was  not  a  new  idea. 
Many  years  before  then  Alfred  du  Pont  wrote: 
"We  notice  in  the  President's  message  the  rec- 
ommendation of  erecting  powder  works,  but 
not  having  yet  seen  the  report  of  the  Secretary 
of  War,  we  cannot  exactly  know  the  reasons 
that  have  induced  the  Department  to  recom- 
mend this  measure.  We  can  only  say  that  if  the 
expectation  is  to  save  expense,  they  will  find 
themselves  greatly  deceived."1  Though  the 
powder  was  taxed  in  1862,  the  Government 
powder  works  were  not  heard  of  again,  but 
Henry  du  Pont  was  very  indignant  at  the  sug- 
gestion that  the  Government  could,  with  inex- 
perienced men,  make  powder  that  would  be 
better  or  cheaper  than  that  furnished  by  the 
Du  Pont  firm,  and  he  wrote  to  Captain  Har- 
wood:  "The  market  price  was  twenty  cents  in 
December  when  we  supplied  the  Government 
at  eighteen  cents;  the  present  price  compared 
to  current  rates  of  trade  is  two  dollars  a  barrel 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Decem- 
ber 8,  1837. 


96  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

better  for  the  Government  than  it  ought  to  be 
by  present  prices  of  materials.  There  is  no 
country  in  the  world  where  the  Government 
obtains  its  powder  on  as  favorable  terms  as  in 
the  United  States.  When  our  Mr.  Lammot  du 
Pont  was  in  England  in  January  and  February 
last,  the  British  Government  was  paying  its 
contractors,  in  time  of  peace,  eighty  shillings 
per  hundred  pounds  for  cannon  powder,  one 
hundred  and  ten  for  musket,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  for  rifle  • —  a  good  deal  above  the  war 
prices  here;  the  British  manufacturer  having 
the  benefit  of  free  saltpetre  and  brimstone, 
while  the  American  manufacturer  pays  a  heavy 
duty  on  both."1 

Prices  and  taxes  kept  increasing,  and  in  No- 
vember of  1863  the  price  to  the  Government 
had  reached  twenty-six  cents  a  pound;  at  that 
point  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War  wrote  to 
ask  Henry  du  Pont  whether  it  was  possible  to 
bring  powder  from  England.  He  was  told  that 
the  English  firms  that  supplied  their  Govern- 
ment would  undoubtedly  sell  to  the  United 
States  at  thirty-four  cents  a  pound  for  cannon 
and  forty  cents  for  musket  powder,  exclusive  of 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  June  17. 
1862. 


A  HISTORY  97 

shipping  charges;  but  he  was  also  informed 
that  the  sizes  and  specifications  of  English 
powders,  which  differed  from  those  required  in 
America,  would  cause  much  confusion.  In 
March,  1864,  Henry  du  Pont  wrote  to  General 
Ramsay:  "There  never  has  been  a  case  in  any 
country  in  the  world  where  a  nation  at  war  has 
had  its  powder  so  cheap  as  the  United  States 
have  had  it  since  the  breaking  out  of  the  Re- 
bellion; and  now  at  this  time,  with  a  specific 
duty  of  two  cents  per  pound  on  saltpetre  and 
of  six  dollars  per  ton  on  brimstone,  and  a  Gov- 
ernment tax  of  one  cent  per  pound  on  powder, 
the  United  States  are  getting  the  powder 
cheaper  than  England  pays  for  her  powder, 
where  saltpetre  and  brimstone  are  both  free 
and  where  labor  and  all  other  elements  are 
much  lower  than  in  this  country." 

In  April,  1864,  a  resolution  in  Congress 
added  fifty  per  cent  to  the  duties  affecting 
powder  and  the  price  of  Government  powder 
was  raised  to  thirty  cents.  General  du  Pont,  in 
his  letter  of  explanation,  said: l  "From  1861  to 
the  present  time  saltpetre  has  advanced  135 
per  cent;  brimstone,  80  per  cent;  charcoal,  50 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May 
26, 1864. 


98  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

per  cent;  cooper  work,  90  per  cent;  labor,  75 
per  cent." 

Low  as  were  the  prices  asked  for  Government 
powder,  the  Treasury  Department  was  unable 
to  make  immediate  payments,  and  though  the 
bills  were  promptly  audited  and  approved,  the 
drafts  were  slow  in  coming.  As  all  materials, 
taxes,  and  labor  had  to  be  paid  for  in  cash,  the 
situation  was  a  grave  one  for  the  manufacturer. 
In  March,  1862,  Henry  du  Pont  wrote  to  the 
Ordnance  Department:  "We  have  received  no 
payments  since  October,  and  saltpetre  is  selling 
only  for  cash.  We  need  funds  badly."  In  April: 
"We  are  very  much  in  want  of  funds;  there  is 
due  on  the  November  account  $7770  and  all 
that  has  been  audited  since.  We  understand 
that  the  Treasury  is  paying  twenty  per  cent 
demand  notes  and  eighty  per  cent  certificates 
of  indebtedness,  which  would  be  very  accept- 
able." Between  April  and  the  end  of  July  the 
company  received  about  $360,000,  but  nothing 
more  for  many  months.  In  July,  1864,  powder 
furnished  in  August,  1863,  was  still  not  paid 
for,  and  in  October,  "The  Government  owes  us 
over  $350,000  for  the  Army  alone."  In  August 
of  1865  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  offered 
payment  of  all  the  bills  —  twenty-five  per  cent 


A  HISTORY  99 

in  cash  and  seventy-five  per  cent  in  certificates 
of  indebtedness,  which  was  cheerfully  accepted. 
The  four  years  of  the  war  were  very  hard 
ones  for  all  the  members  of  the  firm;  two  of 
them  —  Henry  and  Lammot  du  Pont  —  had 
suffered  severe  illnesses,  but  they  had  sur- 
mounted every  difficulty  with  unshaken  cour- 
age. Though  great  fortunes  had  not  been  made, 
the  company  had  gained  immeasurably  in  pres- 
tige and  in  experience  and  had  laid  a  founda- 
tion of  great  strength  for  new  activities. 


CHAPTER  IX 

1865-1877 

AT  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  members 
of  the  firm  were  Henry  du  Pont  and  his 
three  nephews,  Eleuthere  Irenee  and  Lammot, 
sons  of  Alfred  du  Pont,  and  Eugene,  the  eldest 
son  of  Alexis. 

As  soon  as  it  was  possible  to  travel  in  the 
south,  George  Breck,  a  relative  of  the  Du  Pont 
family,  was  sent  through  that  country  to  in- 
vestigate the  business  conditions  of  the  South- 
ern States  and  the  standing  of  the  various  Du 
Pont  agencies.  His  report  confirmed  Henry  du 
Pont's  belief  that  the  sale  of  powder  to  the 
Government  in  time  of  war  would  not  be  as 
profitable  as  the  earnings  would  have  been  had 
peace  continued.  All  through  the  South  agents 
had  accepted  Confederate  money  or  bonds  in 
payment  for  powder,  and  the  banks  in  which 
their  deposits  were  made  refused  payment  in 
United  States  currency.  Some  few  agents  had 
bought  cotton  with  the  money  they  had,  but 
few  were  so  far-seeing,  and  the  losses  were  very 
heavy.  Powder  valued  at  over  twelve  thousand 


A  HISTORY  101 

dollars  was  taken  from  the  State  Magazine  in 
Missouri  for  the  use  of  the  Confederate  armies, 
and  was  still  unpaid  for  in  1870. 

When  the  war  ended,  the  Government  asked 
to  be  released  from  all  powder  contracts.  The 
Du  Pont  Company  at  once  agreed  to  have 
them  cancelled  at  no  cost  to  the  Government 
and  resumed  the  manufacture  of  blasting  pow- 
der, for  which  agents  were  clamoring  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  Between  1860  and  1870 
over  twenty-two  thousand  miles  of  railway 
were  built  in  the  United  States;  work  on  the 
Pacific  Railroad  began  at  both  ends  in  1863. 
The  demand  for  powder  for  coal  and  iron  mines 
as  well  as  for  the  construction  of  the  roads  was 
enormous.  Partly  because  the  large  mills  — 
Hazard,  Laflin,  and  Rand,  and  Du  Pont  — 
were  fully  employed  in  supplying  the  Army 
and  Navy,  and  partly  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  transportation,  small  and  poorly  equipped 
mills  had  been  put  up  near  the  mines,  and  hav- 
ing no  agents  and  no  freights  to  consider,  they 
were  able  to  sell  blasting  powder  at  a  great  re- 
duction from  former  prices.  Few  of  them  had 
made  any  allowance  for  losses  by  explosion,  and 
after  short  and  disastrous  experiences  many 
were  glad  to  sell  their  machinery  to  the  larger 


102  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

companies  or  to  increase  their  capital  by  issuing 
stock  to  those  companies  in  order  to  profit  by 
their  greater  knowledge. 

The  spirit  of  speculation  and  competition 
which  was  driving  the  whole  country  to  a  con- 
dition that  culminated  in  the  panic  of  1873  was 
particularly  disorganizing  to  powder-makers; 
agents  of  different  companies  were  continually 
selling  at  a  loss  rather  than  let  another  com- 
pany have  a  customer;  sometimes  agents  of  the 
same  company  underbid  each  other.  Railroads 
usually  gave  lower  freight  rates  to  the  company 
from  which  they  could  most  cheaply  buy  the 
powder  used  in  their  construction  work. 

In  this  very  uncertain  market  a  new  and  un- 
expected competitor  appeared.  The  Govern- 
ment, in  addition  to  the  powder  left  from  the 
war  and  that  taken  in  Confederate  magazines, 
was  constantly  receiving  new  supplies  from 
firms  that  had  refused  to  cancel  their  war  con- 
tracts. It  had  formerly  been  the  custom  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  Departments  to  give  old  pow- 
der in  part  payment  for  new;  but  the  great 
quantity  on  hand  and  the  industrial  demand 
for  explosives  suggested  a  more  summary 
method,  and  in  1866  large  quantities  were 
offered  for  sale  at  public  auctions.  In  April  of 


A  HISTORY  103 

that  year  Henry  du  Pont  wrote:  "The  policy 
pursued  by  the  Navy  Bureau  in  crowding 
immense  quantities  of  powder,  by  auction,  on 
the  market  has  completely  broken  down  the 
trade." l  In  1866  Du  Pont  agents  were  sent  to 
sales  at  various  arsenals  where  about  forty 
thousand  barrels  of  powder  were  sold  —  the 
whole  amount  sold  was  much  larger.  The  situ- 
ation was  so  serious  for  every  one  concerned 
that  an  agent  was  sent  to  Washington  to  try 
to  make  a  better  arrangement,  but  his  report 
was  not  encouraging:  "I  had  a  talk  with  Cap- 
tain Crispin  this  morning.  He  says  he  can  see 
that  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  have  their  powder  handled  by  one 
large  concern;  but  he  does  not  think  there  is  a 
man  in  the  entire  department,  from  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  down,  that  would  dare  to  make 
such  an  arrangement.  I  told  him  that  was  the 
only  way  they  could  get  a  fair  price  for  all  their 
powder;  they  might  find  parties  who  would 
take  a  few  thousand  barrels  at  what  would  ap- 
pear to  be  better  terms,  but  they  would  create 
a  competition  against  themselves.  That  if  the 
Government  was  going  to  sell  powder  that  way 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  April  16. 


104  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

it  would  be  more  to  your  interest  to  stand  aside 
and  let  other  parties  buy  it." *  Other  parties 
were  very  glad  to  buy  it:  "Your  old  friend 
Goodwin  of  the  Empire  Mills  bought  1000  bar- 
rels of  Government  powder  at  St.  Louis  at 
7|  cents  and  shipped  it  to  Pittsburgh  so  look 
out  for  a  raid  on  prices  at  that  point.  The  pow- 
der delivered  on  board  the  barge  at  7$  by 
General  Callender."2 

In  1868  Colonel  Hazard  told  General  Dyer, 
of  the  Ordnance  Department,  that  "the  large 
quantities  of  powder  offered  at  St.  Louis  at  the 
last  sale  (16,247  barrels)  broke  down  the  mar- 
ket and  caused  a  heavy  loss  to  manufacturers 
as  well  as  to  the  Government." 3  A  week  later 
General  Dyer  was  told  that  "at  the  Charlotte 
sale  the  Du  Pont  Company  paid  for  powder 
and  got  a  general  assortment  of  percussion  caps, 
fuses,  ends  of  rope,  old  nails,  spikes,  paper  and 
brass  balls";4  and  that  "it  was  not  just  the 
thing  for  the  Government  to  compete  with  us 

1  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  July  7, 
1866. 

2  J.  M.  Boies  (of  Laflin,  Boies,  &  Turck)  to  F.  L.  Kneeland, 
June  10,  1868. 

*  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  January 
14,  1868. 

4  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  January 
31,  1868. 


A  HISTORY  105 

for  our  retail  trade.  It  is  hard  enough  to  con- 
tend with  the  depression  in  business  and  high 
taxes,  without  having  the  competition  of  thi 
Government  in  addition." 

That  same  year  Pope,  the  secretary  of  the 
Hazard  Company,  told  a  Du  Pont  agent  that 
the  Hazard  Company  had  recently  bought 
Government  powder  and  that  "it  was  found  to 
contain  percussion  caps,  nails,  stones,  chippings 
of  lead  and  pieces  of  iron  from  inside  shells. 
The  workmen  were  so  fearful  of  it  that  they 
dumped  it  all  into  the  river,  which  is  what  the 
Government  ought  to  do  with  the  whole  of 
it."1 

The  complaints,  however,  were  not  all  of  that 
kind.  Much  of  the  auctioned  powder  was  very 
good.  Cannon  and  musket  powder  for  which 
the  Government  had  paid  thirty  cents  a  pound, 
and  which  it  sold  for  from  five  to  twelve  cents, 
was  quicker  and  easier  to  handle  than  blasting 
powder  costing  twenty-two  cents  a  pound;  and 
the  agents'  letters  were  filled  with  the  com- 
plaints of  the  miners  when  they  could  not  get 
the  better  and  cheaper  powder. 

These  public  sales  lasted  till   1872,  when 

1  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
4,  1863. 


106  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Henry  du  Pont  wrote:  "On  inquiry  from  the 
Department  at  Washington  we  learn  that  there 
will  be  no  more  condemned  powder  sold  at 
public  sales.  There  is  still,  however,  some  on 
hand  which  the  Government  will  exchange  for 
good  powder."1  This  was  done  at  a  ratio  of 
about  one  to  four  for  some  years.  The  Du  Pont 
Company  was  still  reworking  Civil  War  pow- 
der in  1890. 

Though  the  public  sales  of  powder  were  dis- 
continued, there  were  many  private  sales.  In 
March,  1878,  the  Government  had  for  sale  at 
St.  Louis  832,000  pounds  of  cannon  and  mus- 
ket powder.2  J.  W.  King  had  been  an  official  of 
the  Miami  Powder  Company  of  Ohio;  he  quar- 
elled  with  its  directors  and,  with  the  powder 
that  was  for  sale  so  conveniently  near  by,  de- 
clared war  on  the  Miami  Company.  King's 
Great  Western  Powder  Company  was  organ- 
ized near  Cincinnati  in  August,  1878;  but  a 
month  earlier  Henry  du  Pont  wrote:  "King's 
Rifle  powder  is  old  condemned  powder  such  as 
is  sold  for  blasting;  he  purchased  it  at  the  St. 
Louis  Arsenal  and  has  redried  and  reglazed  it. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Decem- 
ber 16,  1872. 

2  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
SO,  1878. 


A  HISTORY  107 

It  is  an  inferior  article.  We  have  often  bought 
it  at  Government  sales  and  sold  it  for  blasting 
powder.  He  has  a  very  small  mill,  makes  some 
blasting  powder  but  no  rifle,  —  but  fills  his  rifle 
trade  with  this  old  Government  powder.'*1 
And  seven  years  later:  "Prices  of  powder  have 
been  demoralized  by  the  war  between  the 
Great  Western  Powder  Company  and  the 
Miami  Powder  Company." 2  Either  the  Great 
Western  Company  had  provisioned  itself  well 
for  the  war  or  it  made  very  large  profits,  for 
it  continued  its  depredations  on  the  regular 
market  until  the  death  of  King  in  July,  1885. 
The  new  manager,  G.  W.  Peters,  a  son-in-law 
of  King,  did  not  carry  on  the  feud. 

With  so  many  difficulties  to  overcome,  it  was 
obvious  that  if  any  profit  was  to  be  made  by 
the  manufacture  of  powder  the  materials  must 
be  bought  and  the  product  sold  more  carefully 
than  had  hitherto  been  done.  For  that  purpose 
the  larger  companies  agreed  among  themselves 
not  to  outbid  each  other  in  buying  saltpetre  or 
nitrate;  not  to  attempt  to  sell  in  territory  that 
could  be  more  economically  reached  by  another 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  July 
29,  1878. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  July 
13,  1885. 


108  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

company;  and  above  all  to  stop  the  ruinous 
competition  of  their  agents.  Their  intention 
was  not  to  force  prices  up  or  down,  nor  was  any 
company  made  to  suffer  for  not  joining  them. 
They  were  simply  making  the  best  arrange- 
ment that  seemed  possible  to  allow  each  manu- 
facturer to  deliver  his  product  at  the  least  cost 
to  both  himself  and  the  purchaser.  Even  with 
these  economies  it  was  hard  to  earn  any  profit. 
In  1868  Smith  and  Rand  reduced  their  divi- 
dend from  five  to  three  and  a  half  per  cent.  In 
1870  the  Oriental  Powder  Company  failed  be- 
cause of  heavy  indebtedness,  high  cost  of  ma- 
terials, and  competition.  It  struggled  on  a  little 
while,  was  sold  at  auction  in  1872  and  was 
reorganized. 

In  1873  all  business  in  this  country  was  in  a 
most  critical  condition.  Speculative  buying  had 
reached  unprecedented  heights  —  and  fallen. 
The  great  failure  of  Jay  Cooke  and  Company 
carried  other  bankers  with  it;  and  railways  and 
mines  were  forced  to  stop  work.  In  1877  Henry 
du  Pont  said,  "More  than  half  the  powder  ma- 
chinery in  this  country  has  been  lying  idle  since 
the  panic  of  1873." 1  Only  the  fittest  could  sur- 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Font  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
17,  1877. 


A  HISTORY  109 

vive,  and  they  by  the  greatest  effort.  In  1875  a 
man  wrote  to  ask  the  Du  Fonts  for  a  place  as 
engineer  and  was  told:  "We  build  our  own 
machinery;  draw  our  own  plans;  make  our  own 
patterns;  and  have  never  employed  any  one 
to  design  or  construct  our  mills  or  machinery, 
dams  or  races,  roads  or  anything  else;  being 
our  own  engineers  and  superintendents  of  all 
work  done  at  our  mills,  both  here  and  in  Penn- 
sylvania."1 That  is  the  true  explanation  of 
the  growth  of  the  company  in  those  most  try- 
ing times.  Their  agents  could  not  always  be 
trusted;  many  of  them  succumbed  to  the  mania 
for  speculation,  and  losses  through  them  were 
very  heavy.  But  the  manufacturing  part  of 
the  business  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  those 
whose  name  it  bore  and  they  were  willing  to 
make  every  personal  sacrifice  that  it  might 
succeed. 

The  President  of  the  Hazard  Powder  Com- 
pany died  in  1868,  leaving  to  his  family  a  large 
fortune  all  invested  in  railways.  A  few  months 
later  the  New  York  agent  wrote:  "The  death 
of  Colonel  Hazard  has  effected  the  standing  of 
their  Company  in  the  trade  very  seriously.  It  is 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Novem- 
ber 22,  1875. 


110  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

reported  that  the  Company  is  falling  to  pieces. 
I  think  they  are  badly  in  want  of  business  abil- 
ity." l  A  serious  explosion  in  1871  was  a  severe 
blow  to  their  credit,  and  in  1874  they  were  said 
to  be  in  need  of  both  money  and  orders.  In 
1876  the  Hazard  Company  was  quite  willing  to 
sell  a  majority  of  their  stock  to  the  Du  Pont 
Company,  with  whom  they  had  always  been 
on  very  friendly  terms. 

An  interest  in  the  California  Powder  Works 
was  acquired  at  about  the  same  time.  Because 
of  the  impossibility  of  sending  powder  to  Cali- 
fornia at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
it  was  greatly  needed  for  the  gold  mines,  a  set 
of  mills  had  been  built  in  1861  at  Santa  Cruz. 
Having  Chinese  labor,  and  saltpetre  and  ni- 
trate directly  from  India  and  Chili,  they  man- 
ufactured about  four  thousand  kegs  a  month 
with  some  success.  They  made  only  blasting 
powder,  and  at  first  only  expected  to  work 
until  the  market  could  be  supplied  by  the  East- 
ern manufacturers.  As  early  as  1864  troubles 
with  the  machinery  and  with  labor  had  dis- 
couraged the  stockholders,  and  in  1867  one  of 
them  offered  the  Du  Pont  Company  his  shares 

1  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Decem- 
ber 12,  1868. 


A  HISTORY  111 

of  the  stock,  amounting  to  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  His  offer  was  declined,  but  the  next 
year  the  Du  Fonts  were  offered  shares  by  two 
other  shareholders.  The  Du  Pont  Company 
then  instructed  their  San  Francisco  agent  to 
investigate  the  California  Company  —  the 
value  of  its  land  and  buildings,  its  capital,  etc., 
and  as  a  result  bought  much  of  its  stock,  though 
until  1877  the  Du  Pont  Company's  interest  was 
not  large  enough  to  ensure  the  cooperation  of 
the  California  Company. 

The  experiments  with  cannon  powder  that 
were  so  engrossing  to  Captain  Rodman  and 
Lammot  du  Pont  before  the  war  were  not  seri- 
ously resumed  until  1870,  and  then  by  Lieuten- 
ant Dutton,  who  had  Captain  Rodman's 
former  place  at  the  Frankford  Arsenal.  At  first 
only  the  composition  of  the  usual  Mammoth 
powder  was  considered  —  ordinary  black  pow- 
der grained  to  about  an  inch  in  diameter  —  but 
the  perforated  cakes  that  Captain  Rodman  had 
suggested  were  remembered,  and  experimental 
moulds  for  them  were  made.  These  moulds, 
made  of  bell  metal,  gave  much  trouble,  for  they 
did  not  keep  their  dimensions  under  pressure, 
and  the  density  of  different  cakes  was  uneven. 
The  solid  cakes  were  sent  to  Frankford  and 


112  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

perforated  with  a  drill  that  Lieutenant  Button 
adapted  for  the  purpose. 

In  1872,  the  moulds  having  proved  impracti- 
cable, Lammot  and  Eugene  du  Pont  together 
applied  for  a  patent  in  the  United  States,  Eng- 
land, and  France  "for  compressing  dampened 
powder  in  sheets  between  ribbed  plates  or  other 
mechanical  equivalent  for  forming  indented 
lines,  by  which  the  cake  is  broken  up  into  uni- 
form shapes  or  sizes,  and  the  giving  of  these 
grains  a  greater  density  on  the  surface  than  in 
the  interior." *  Lammot  du  Pont  had  in  1865 
patented  a  horizontal  press  for  the  compression 
of  powder  and  also  the  hard-rubber  plates  used 
in  it.  The  Du  Ponts  were  so  sure  of  the  value  of 
the  ribbed  plates  that  they  at  first  intended  to 
have  their  rights  patented  in  Germany  also. 
This  plan  was  discouraged  by  their  lawyer, 
whose  letter  on  the  subject  is  interesting:  "In 
Germany  there  is  so  much  uncertainty  that  I 
consider  it  my  duty  to  first  inform  you  of  it 
before  you  incur  the  expense  of  an  application 
there.  My  experience  in  procuring  patents  in 
Germany  is  that  they  refuse  everything  that 
the  Government  wants  to  use,  and  your  inven- 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.  to  A.  B.  Stoughton,  August 
25.  1873. 


A  HISTORY  113 

tion  is  right  in  their  line.  Beside,  their  system  is 
so  defective  and  their  commissioners  so  corrupt 
that  you  must  either  buy  or  get  personal  influ- 
ence before  you  can  obtain  the  patent.  And 
after  you  have  a  patent  the  Government  will 
use  it  if  they  want  it  and  without  paying  a  far- 
thing for  it." * 

Samples  of  hexagonal  and  octagonal  powders 
were  ready  for  the  Government  to  try  in  Janu- 
ary, 1873.  The  new  powder  could  not  be  made 
quickly.  All  of  it  was  gone  over  by  hand  and 
imperfect  grains  were  taken  out;  "the  produc- 
tion per  month  will  fall  far  behind  that  of  the 
old  style  Mammoth  powder,  but  we  believe 
the  loss  in  production  and  the  increase  in  price 
will  be  amply  compensated  by  the  results  ob- 
tained." 2  Samples  were  also  sent  of  what  was 
called  square  powder;  "the  horizontal  section 
is  square  and  the  vertical  section  an  octagon  " 3 
—  but  it  never  seems  to  have  got  beyond  the 
experimental  stage.  In  the  following  December 
the  Government  ordered  four  hundred  and 
fifty  barrels  of  hexagonal  powder  for  the  Navy 

1  A.  B.  Stoughton  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Septem- 
ber 9,  1873. 

1  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  to  Major  Bayler,  April  25,  1873. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
18,  1873. 


114  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

and  five  hundred  for  the  Army,  beside  one 
thousand  barrels  of  ordinary  Navy  cannon 
powder;  and  very  soon  after  that,  the  English 
Government  ordered  two  thousand  pounds  of 
the  hexagonal,  probably  in  order  to  compare 
it  with  "an  analogous  powder"1  made  by  an 
English  firm  for  that  Government,  at  nine  cents 
a  pound  more  than  the  Du  Pont  price. 

Eleuthere  Irenee  du  Pont,  the  eldest  grand- 
son of  the  founder  of  the  Company,  died  in 
September,  1877,  after  an  illness  of  many 
months.  He  was  only  forty-eight  years  old,  and 
had  been  a  member  of  the  firm  for  twenty-six 
years.  When  Alfred  du  Pont  resigned  in  1850, 
Henry  du  Pont  took  entire  charge  of  the  office, 
leaving  the  care  of  the  mills  to  his  brother 
Alexis  with  their  nephews  Eleuthere  Irenee  and 
his  brother  Lammot.  Seven  years  later  Alexis 
du  Pont  was  killed  in  an  explosion  and  the  mills 
were  managed  by  Irenee  and  Lammot  alone, 
until  in  1861  they  were  reenforced  by  Eugene 
du  Pont,  then  twenty-one  years  old.  They 
superintended  the  entire  manufacture  of  both 
the  Brandywine  and  Wapwallopen  mills  until 
Francis  G.  du  Pont,  Eugene's  younger  brother, 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Decem- 
ber 8.  1873. 


A  HISTORY  115 

joined  them.  Lammot  du  Pont  was  in  Europe 
for  three  months  in  1858  and  for  a  shorter  time 
in  1861.  When  he  was  nominally  at  home  his 
share  in  the  management  often  called  him  to 
Wapwallopen,  New  York,  or  Washington.  The 
chemical  work  in  which  he  was  so  successful 
kept  him  in  the  refinery  and  the  laboratory 
very  constantly.  Those  buildings  were  in  the 
original  enclosure  —  the  "Upper  Yard,"  which 
in  1866  had  a  capacity  for  producing  five  thou- 
sand pounds  of  sporting  powder  a  day.  Lammot 
and  Eugene  du  Pont  practically  confined  their 
supervision  of  the  Brandywine  mills  to  this 
yard,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  manufacture  to 
Irenee  and,  after  1871,  Francis  G.  du  Pont. 

"Hagley  Yard,"  bought  in  1812  and  often 
extended,  could  make  twenty-five  thousand 
pounds  of  blasting  powder  a  day  in  1866;  and 
within  its  boundaries  were  the  machine  and 
millwright  shops,  the  carpenter  and  black- 
smith shops,  keg  factory  and  packing  house. 
The  "Lower  Yard,"  begun  in  1847,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Brandywine  and  nearer 
Wilmington,  had  an  output  of  five  thousand 
pounds  of  sporting  powder  a  day.  A  circular, 
printed  in  1872  for  the  information  of  their 
agents,  shows  that  the  Company  made  twenty- 


116  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

four  kinds  of  gunpowder  and  seventeen  kinds 
of  blasting  powder,  and  sold  as  by-products 
refined  saltpetre,  sulphur,  charcoal,  and  also 
safety  fuse. 

Irenee  du  Font's  responsibility,  therefore, 
was  very  great.  Day  after  day  for  twenty-seven 
years  he  was  with  the  powdermen,  looking  for 
opportunities  for  improving  the  efficiency  of 
the  machinery  or  adding  to  its  safety.  He  was 
always  one  of  the  first  on  the  ground  after  an 
explosion,  and  he  never  permitted  a  new  or  a 
rebuilt  mill  to  be  operated  until  he  himself  had 
run  it.  During  the  Civil  War  all  the  mills 
worked  on  Government  powder,  and  the  care 
and  the  constant  anxiety  and  frequent  acci- 
dents gave  him  little  rest.  The  men  who  worked 
for  him  told  stories  of  his  generosity  and  his 
courage  for  many  years  after  his  death.  His 
few  friends  loved  and  admired  him.  But  he 
never  left  home  except  for  short  business  trips; 
he  put  all  his  strength  into  his  daily  work,  and 
died  as  a  result  of  the  exposure  and  fatigue. 


CHAPTER  X 

1878-1889 

HENRY  DU  FONT'S  elder  son,  Henry 
A.  du  Pont,  was,  like  his  father,  a  grad- 
uate of  West  Point.  He  was  given  the  Con- 
gressional Medal  of  Honor  and  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel  for  distinguished  gallantry 
in  the  Civil  War,  and  he  remained  in  the  Army 
until  after  his  marriage  in  1874.  For  many 
years  his  father  had  urged  his  return  to  Dela- 
ware; more  men  were  much  wanted  in  the 
management  of  the  Company;  but  Colonel  du 
Pont  was  devoted  to  his  profession  and  post- 
poned his  resignation  until  his  wife's  desire  for 
a  settled  home  was  added  to  his  father's  need 
of  his  help.  He  became  a  member  of  the  firm  in 
January,  1878,  at  the  time  of  the  readjustment 
that  followed  the  death  of  the  second  E.  I.  du 
Pont.  Colonel  du  Pont  was  assigned  to  duties 
in  the  office  —  he  had  had  much  administra- 
tive experience  at  various  army  posts  —  and  it 
was  believed  that  he  could  relieve  his  father  of 
part  of  the  enormous  correspondence.  In  1876 


118  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

Henry  du  Pont  wrote  in  apology  for  an  illegi- 
ble phrase  in  one  of  his  letters:  "I  have  written 
so  many  letters  in  the  last  forty  years  —  aver- 
age about  six  thousand  per  year  —  that  it  has 
spoiled  my  penmanship."  l  There  were  times, 
undoubtedly,  when  he  felt  the  need  of  help, 
but  when  it  came  to  the  point  he  was  quite  un- 
willing to  give  up  any  part  of  his  accustomed 
task.  Colonel  du  Font's  share  of  the  office  work 
was  not  sufficient  to  fill  his  time,  and  by  de- 
grees business  arrangements  that  involved  trips 
to  New  York  were  assigned  to  him,  as  were  all 
railway  arrangements  and  discussions  with  the 
officials  of  other  companies.  As  a  result  of  his 
knowledge  of  railway  methods,  he  became 
President  of  the  Wilmington  and  Northern 
Railroad  in  addition  to  his  duties  with  the 
Company. 

In  1878  Henry  du  Pont's  younger  son,  Wil- 
liam, seventeen  years  younger  than  Colonel  du 
Pont,  also  became  a  member  of  the  firm,  and 
was  given  charge  of  all  the  farms  belonging  to 
it  —  no  small  task,  for  farming  was  the  one 
relaxation  that  Henry  du  Pont  and  his  father 
before  him  had  permitted  themselves,  and  by 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
5, 1876. 


A  HISTORY  119 

1878  "the  farm"  covered  many  hundreds  of 
acres. 

Neither  of  the  new  men  had  any  place  in  the 
running  of  the  mills,  and  Francis  G.  du  Pont 
had  all  the  responsibility  that  he  had  formerly 
shared  with  Irenee  du  Pont. 

In  1865  Alfred  Nobel  patented  a  process  for 
making  nitro-glycerine,  thereby  introducing 
an  explosive  infinitely  more  powerful  than  any 
previously  used.  Henry  du  Pont,  always  firm 
in  his  faith  in  the  processes  used  by  his  father, 
had  little  patience  with  the  reports  that  were 
sent  to  him  of  the  wonderful  discovery:  "Since 
writing  to  you  on  the  subject  of  Blasting  Oil, 
we  have  seen  an  interesting  article  on  the  sub- 
ject in  the  last  number  of  the  'Scientific  Amer- 
ican,' taken  from  some  European  paper,  which 
confirms  the  impression  we  had  and  proves 
that  its  use  would  be  much  more  dangerous 
than  gunpowder"; l  and  later:  "We  thank  you 
for  the  sh'p  containing  account  of  the  explosion 
at  San  Francisco.  We  think  that  will  be  the  end 
of  Nitro  Glycerine  in  this  continent."  5 
i  Other  firms,  however,  did  not  dismiss  the 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
5,  1866. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  April 
19, 1866. 


120  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

subject  so  lightly.  The  London  brokers  who 
bought  saltpetre  for  the  Du  Pont  Company 
wrote:  "After  the  recent  experience  in  Ger- 
many of  new  explosives,  it  is  probable  that  the 
use  of  Gunpowder  will  become  less  extensive 
for  War  purposes,  whilst  substitutes  for  blast- 
ing purposes  also  appear  to  be  coming  into 
more  general  use."  1 

The  danger  in  handling  pure  nitro-glycerine 
was  very  great;  newspapers  had  frequent  sto- 
ries of  terrible  explosions;  and  when  in  1868 
Nobel's  own  factory  near  Stockholm  was  de- 
stroyed with  much  loss  of  life  and  property,  its 
importation  or  use  was  forbidden  in  both  Bel- 
gium and  England.  But  in  that  year  Nobel 
patented  a  formula  for  dynamite  which  dimin- 
ished the  sensitiveness  of  the  nitro-glycerine 
by  introducing  an  absorbent. 

Much  experimenting  was  being  done  in  the 
United  States.  The  Oriental  Powder  Company 
made  a  "new  explosive"  and  had  a  disastrous 
explosion,  ending  in  their  bankruptcy.  "Dua- 
lin  "  was  a  dangerous  explosive  made  by  Rand.2 
"The  California  Company  are  selling  in  Colo- 
rado a  new  article  which  they  call  Hercules, 

1  Forbes,  Forbes  &  Co.,  August  8,  1866. 
8  F.  L.  Kneeland,  December  19,  1871. 


A  HISTORY  121 

which  is  Blasting  Powder  soaked  in  Nitro-Gly- 
cerine."  1  But  Henry  du  Font's  distrust  of  all 
"high  explosives"  remained  unshaken:  "It  is 
only  a  matter  of  time  how  soon  a  man  will  lose 
his  life  who  uses  Hercules,  Giant,  Dualin,  Dy- 
namite, Nitro-Glycerine,  Guncotton,  Aver- 
hard's  Patent  or  any  explosive  of  that  nature. 
They  are  all  vastly  more  dangerous  than  Gun- 
powder, and  no  man's  life  is  safe  who  uses 
them."  2  He  declined  to  buy  patents  for  new 
explosives,  though  in  writing  to  one  inventor 
he  admitted:  "A  powder  is  much  wanted  that 
will  answer  certain  purposes  and  it  must  have 
the  following  qualities,  1.  It  must  burn  with 
intense  quickness.  2.  Large  volume  of  gas. 
3.  Cheapness.  4.  Not  liable  to  spontaneous  de- 
composition." 3 

In  1873  a  letter  that  later  on  must  have  been 
embarrassing  was  written  to  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  warning  them  against  carrying  "any 
compounds  of  nitre-glycerine,"  adding,  "We 
have  sent  circulars  to  all  our  agents  cautioning 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  De- 
cember-21,  1869. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
14, 1871. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
15,  1871. 


122  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

them  against  allowing  any  such  to  be  stored  in 
our  magazines." l 

It  was  not  until  1876  that  there  was  any 
suggestion  that  the  head  of  the  company  was 
weakening  in  his  condemnation  of  the  new  ex- 
plosives, but  in  that  year  he  approved  the 
manufacture  of  Hercules  powder  by  the  Cali- 
fornia Powder  Works,  in  which  the  Du  Pont 
Company  was  the  largest  stockholder;  and  he 
gave  some  advice  concerning  the  manufacture 
of  the  necessary  acids.  In  1877  the  California 
Works  built  a  plant  for  Hercules  powder  near 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  because  they  found  it  could 
"be  manufactured  there  ten  cents  per  pound 
cheaper  than  in  California," 2  and  shortly  after- 
ward Henry  du  Pont  wrote  to  an  agent:  "We 
know  nothing  about  the  prices  of  the  Hercules 
powder;  but  please  write  or  telegraph  J.  W. 
Willard,  Hercules  Powder  Company,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  and  he  will  post  you.  On  August  1st 
last  he  wrote  to  know  if  our  agents  could  help 
in  the  sale  of  Hercules,  to  which  we  consented, 
provided  they  do  not  store  it  in  our  magazines. 
It  is  the  best  of  all  patent  explosives." 3 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May 
1,  1873. 

*  California  Powder  Works,  September  16,  1877. 

3  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Novem- 
ber 6,  1877. 


A  HISTORY  123 

It  is  not  difficult  to  read  between  the  lines  of 
these  letters  that  Lammot  du  Pont  had  been 
experimenting  with  the  new  explosives  and 
that  the  day  must  come  when  any  firm  of 
which  he  was  a  member  would  do  its  share  of 
the  manufacture.  He  made  plans  for  a  dyna- 
mite plant  to  be  built  on  the  Wilmington  and 
Northern  Railroad,  not  far  from  Wilmington, 
but  there  was  much  opposition  from  other 
members  of  the  firm,  and  the  site  was  aban- 
doned. On  January  29, 1880,  a  very  unenthusi- 
astic  announcement  was  made:  "We  are  going 
into  the  high  explosive  business  —  that  is,  we 
are  forming  a  company  in  which  we  are  heavily 
interested  to  manufacture  the  same,  and  have 
not  as  yet  fully  determined  on  the  name."  In 
February  Lammot  du  Pont  went  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, presumably  to  discuss  his  plans  with 
other  manufacturers.  In  May  press  plates  for 
making  hexagonal  powder  were  sent  to  the 
California  Powder  Works;  these  plates  had 
been  patented  by  Lammot  du  Pont  and  were  in 
use  only  at  the  Du  Pont  mills.  Very  shortly  af- 
terward the  three  companies  —  Laflin  and 
Rand,  Hazard,  and  Du  Pont  —  who  had  sub- 
scribed equally  for  the  new  high  explosives 
company,  also  bought  the  California  Com- 


124  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

pany's  Hercules  plant  at  Cleveland.  All  of 
which  sounds  like  an  exchange  of  courtesies 
helpful  to  both  sides. 

The  Repauno  Chemical  Company,  of  which 
Lammot  du  Pont  became  president  and  Wil- 
liam du  Pont  secretary  and  treasurer,  had  its 
factory  at  Gibbstown,  New  Jersey,  at  the 
junction  of  the  Repauno  Creek  and  the  Dela- 
ware River,  directly  opposite  Chester,  Penn- 
sylvania. Henry  du  Pont  apparently  became 
really  converted:  "As  to  blasting  under  water, 
we  must  frankly  advise  Nitro-Glycerine.  We 
refer  you  to  the  Repauno  Chemical  Company. 
Atlas  powder  is  the  best  and  safest  high  explo- 
sive made." 1 

Though  the  plant  at  Cleveland  built  by  the 
California  Powder  Works  for  their  Hercules 
powder  was  bought  by  the  same  interests  that 
provided  the  capital  for  Repauno,  the  name 
was  not  part  of  the  bargain,  and  it  was  not  till 
September  of  1881  that  the  California  Com- 
pany agreed  to  allow  the  new  corporation  to 
be  called  the  Hercules  Powder  Company.  It 
was  quite  distinct  from  the  Repauno  Chemical 
Company,  though  it  had  the  same  officers  and 
stockholders. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Janu- 
ary 6. 1881. 


A  HISTORY  125 

In  January,  1882,  Lammot  du  Pont  resigned 
from  the  Du  Pont  Company  in  order  to  give 
all  his  time  to  the  Repauno  Company,  of  which 
the  office  was  in  Philadelphia.  He  took  over  all 
the  shares  owned  by  the  Du  Pont  Company; 
the  rest  of  the  stock  remained  with  Laflin  and 
Rand,  and  Hazard.  His  success  was  immediate 
and  brilliant,  and  he  laid  the  foundation  of  an 
enormous  industry;  but  the  end  of  his  share  in 
it  came  very  soon.  On  March  30,  1884,  Henry 
du  Pont  wrote  to  Bernard  Peyton  of  the  Cali- 
fornia Company,  to  tell  him  of  the  accident  in 
which  Lammot  was  killed,  and  his  words  are 
too  graphic  to  be  altered: 

"We  have  just  advised  you  by  telegraph  of 
the  death  of  Mr.  Lammot  du  Pont,  who  was 
killed  by  the  serious  accident  which  occurred 
about  10.20  A.M.  yesterday  at  the  works  of  the 
Repauno  Chemical  Company. 

"Something  going  wrong  in  the  Nitro-Gly- 
cerine  house,  the  person  in  charge  —  Mr.  Nor- 
cross,  who  was  there  with  two  workmen,  sent 
for  Mr.  Hill,  the  chemist.  Mr.  du  Pont,  who 
happened  to  be  at  the  works  that  day  with  Mr. 
Ackerson  of  the  Laflin  and  Rand  Co.,  went 
with  Mr.  Hill,  as  did  Mr.  Ackerson. 

"All  of  these  were  at  or  near  the  house  when 


126  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

the  explosion  took  place,  and  all  were  instantly 
killed  by  the  shock;  —  the  bodies  being  very 
slightly  mutilated. 

"The  damage  to  the  other  buildings  was 
practically  nothing;  a  few  panes  of  glass  being 
broken  and  a  few  weather  boards  knocked  off. 
The  most  serious  part  of  the  accident  was  the 
sacrifice  of  so  many  useful  and  valuable  lives  — 
but  we  will  not  enlarge  upon  this,  knowing  how 
thoroughly  you  will  appreciate  the  magnitude 
of  our  loss. 

"As  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained  about  2000 
Ibs.  of  nitro-glycerine  exploded." 

Lammot  du  Font's  death  was  an  appalling 
loss  to  the  firms  with  which  he  was  connected. 
He  was  a  brilliant  chemist,  a  skilful  and  practi- 
cal machinist,  fearless  almost  to  recklessness  in 
experimenting,  and  he  had  an  understanding  of 
human  nature  that  was  of  great  value  in  the 
business  world.  He  would  have  gone  very  far 
had  he  lived  a  few  years  longer.  As  it  was,  he 
probably  did  more  for  the  development  of  ex- 
plosives than  any  other  one  man. 

After  his  death  the  Du  Pont  Company 
bought  from  his  estate  the  greater  part  of  his 
stock  in  the  Repauno  Company.  Mr.  Turck, 
the  president  of  the  Laflin  and  Rand  Company, 


A  HISTORY  127 

was  made  president  pro  tern,  of  Repauno,  "and 
nothing  is  done  without  full  consultation  with 
Mr.  William  du  Pont,  who  represents  us  on  the 
Board;  Mr.  Lammot  du  Font's  plans  are  being 
carried  out  just  as  he  intended."  l  In  a  short 
time  William  du  Pont  became  president  of  both 
Repauno  and  Hercules  and  the  offices  were 
moved  from  Philadelphia  to  Wilmington. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  Du  Pont  Company 
the  correspondence  with  its  agents  was  the 
happiest  part  of  the  day's  work.  Victor  du 
Pont,  the  New  York  representative  of  the 
Company,  and  his  successor,  Anthony  Girard; 
De  Grand  in  Boston;  Cazenove  in  Alexandria; 
Pitray,  Viel  and  Company  in  Charleston  —  all 
of  them  wrote  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  in  the  language 
that  he  loved,  and  their  letters  gave  him  the 
news  of  the  day  in  America  and  Europe.  Gir- 
ard, a  friend  of  Victor  du  Pont,  was  the  New 
York  agent  from  1806  till  1823,  when  he  re- 
tired from  business  and  William  Kemble  took 
the  agency.  Kemble's  letters  —  two  or  three  of 
them  every  week  until  1861  —  were  full  of  the 
business  and  politics  of  New  York  and  are  still 
most  interesting.  By  1861  the  New  York  end 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  April 
21,  1884. 


128  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

of  the  work  had  become  too  important  to  be 
merely  a  side  issue  in  Mr.  Kemble's  office 
nor  could  he  give  all  his  time  to  Du  Pont  busi- 
ness; he  had  for  some  years  been  supplemented 
by  F.  L.  Kneeland,  a  salesman  whose  energetic 
methods  recommended  him  to  Henry  du  Pont. 
Kneeland  was  put  at  the  head  of  a  New  York 
office  of  the  Du  Pont  Company  and  given 
charge  of  all  the  shipping  that  went  through 
that  city  and  of  all  the  agencies,  which  were 
increasing  rapidly,  in  New  York  State  and  New 
England.  He  became  invaluable  to  General  du 
Pont;  was  soon  "our  general  agent";  travelled 
all  over  the  country  on  inspection  trips;  inves- 
tigated delayed  accounts;  discharged  untrust- 
worthy agents;  and  was  the  one  man  whose 
advice  on  any  subject  was  always  welcome  to 
General  du  Pont.  He  died  in  May,  1884,  after 
a  short  illness  that  had  not  been  considered 
alarming.  There  had  been  no  time  for  readjust- 
ment and  there  was  no  one  to  take  his  place. 
The  accustomed  routine  of  transshipping  and 
bookkeeping  went  on  as  before  in  the  New 
York  office,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  work 
that  Kneeland  had  accomplished  was  after  his 
death  done  in  General  du  Font's  office,  and 
greatly  increased  his  cares  and  the  volume  of 


A  HISTORY  129 

his  correspondence.  One  of  these  letters  is  so 
characteristic  as  to  be  worth  quoting.  An  agent 
in  Texas  had  been  somewhat  over-zealous  in 
warning  the  company  of  the  laws  concerning 
corporations;  he  was  probably  less  officious 
after  he  had  received  the  following  reply  in 
General  du  Font's  handwriting: 

"We  are  a  partnership  —  a  firm  composed  of 
individuals.  We  are  not  an  incorporated  com- 
pany, nor  have  we  ever  been  a  corporation.  We 
have  always  been  a  firm  and  never  had  but  the 
one  firm  name.  We  manage  our  own  business  in 
every  particular,  and  allow  no  trusts  or  com- 
binations to  rule  or  dictate  what  we  shall  do  or 
what  we  shall  not  do.  We  make  our  own  pow- 
der, and  we  make  our  own  prices  at  which  it 
shall  be  sold,  here,  there,  and  everywhere  in  the 
world  where  it  is  for  sale. 

"We  are  every  day  dictating  to  our  agents 
as  to  prices,  terms,  and  conditions  to  govern 
them;  but  we  do  not  allow  anybody  to  dictate 
to  us  as  to  what  prices,  terms,  and  conditions 
we  shall  dictate.  We  do  our  own  dictating. 

"If  we  choose  we  can  as  quickly  as  wires  can 
carry  the  orders  change  the  price  at  each  and 
every  point  in  the  world  where  Du  Pont  pow- 
der is  for  sale.  And  no  trust,  no  combination, 


130  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

no  set  of  people  nor  persons  can  interfere.  We 
have  not  changed  our  mode  of  selling.  Our 
mode  to-day  is  the  same  as  it  has  been  since 
our  firm  was  established  very  nearly  a  hundred 
years  ago  and  we  expect  to  continue  a  hundred 
years  more  in  the  same  way."  1 

In  1880  the  Du  Pont  Company  owned2 
"outside  of  the  coal-fields:3  the  Brandy  wine 
mills;  the  Hazard  Powder  Company;  the  Syca- 
more Mills; 4  two  thirds  of  the  Oriental  Powder 
Mills; 5  one  third  of  the  Austin  Powder  Mills; 6 
thirteen  twentieths  of  the  California  Powder 
Works."  Henry  du  Pont  kept  in  touch  with  the 
activities  of  all  these  plants  and  with  four  or 
five  hundred  agents.  Lammot  du  Font's  resig- 
nation made  it  necessary  that  Eugene  du  Pont 
should  superintend  the  Wapwallopen  Mills,  as 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  April 
20,  1889. 

2  F.  L.  Kneeland  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Septem- 
ber 14,  1880. 

3  Inside  were  Wapwallopen,  and  mills  at  Tamaqua,  Pennsyl- 
vania, managed  by  H.  C.  Weldy.  They  became  H.  C.  Weldy  and 
Company  in  1899. 

4  The  Sycamore  stock  was  acquired  partly  as  payment  for 
machinery,  partly  from  individual  holders. 

6  The  Oriental  Company  was  wrecked  by  a  severe  explosion 
of  dynamite  in  1870;  became  bankrupt  with  an  indebtedness  of 
$648,000;  and  was  bought  in  1879. 

*  The  Austin  Powder  Company  stock  was  bought  in  1872. 


A  HISTORY  131 

well  as  the  Upper  Yard  and  the  experimental 
laboratory.  In  1884  Charles  I.  du  Pont,  a  great- 
grandson  of  Victor,  the  brother  of  E.  I.  du  Pont 
de  Nemours,  became  assistant  to  Eugene  du 
Pont,  and  Alfred  I.,  a  son  of  the  second  E.  I. 
du  Pont,  helped  Francis  G.  du  Pont  in  Hagley 
and  the  Lower  Yard. 

The  increasing  demand  for  blasting  powder 
in  the  Middle  West  and  the  difficulties  of  trans- 
portation made  it  necessary  to  build  a  factory 
to  supply  that  market.  In  1888  the  Company 
bought  land  near  Keokuk,  Iowa,  where  Francis 
G.  du  Pont  directed  the  construction  of  mills 
as  perfect  as  his  long  experience  could  make 
them.  They  were  not  ready  for  work  till  April, 
1890,  but  were  then  the  largest  mills  in  the 
world  for  the  manufacture  of  blasting  powder. 

Before  Lammot  du  Pont's  retirement  from 
the  company  some  experimenting  was  done  in 
the  burning  of  charcoal.  In  1876  it  was  found 
that  "red  charcoal  has  about  4  per  cent  more 
oxygen  and  hydrogen  than  light  brown.  Red 
charcoal  ignites  more  readily  than  black."  But 
nitro-glycerine  was  the  absorbing  subject  of 
investigation,  and  until  the  Russo-Turkish 
War  of  1877,  in  which  England  very  nearly  be- 
came involved,  little  thought  was  given  to  any 


132  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

radical  changes  in  munitions  of  war.  In  1882 
Captain  Smith,  of  the  Ordnance  Department, 
asked  the  Du  Pont  Company  to  order  moulds 
and  dies  to  press  "prismatic  powder";  each 
cake  was  to  be  hexagonal  in  shape,  to  measure 
two  and  a  half  inches  from  flat  to  flat,  and  to 
be  two  inches  high  —  a  hole  to  be  drilled 
through  the  middle.1  In  January,  1883,  Eugene 
du  Pont  was  arranging  a  temporary  press  for 
the  "prismatic"  and  getting  all  the  informa- 
tion he  could  about  European  powders. 

Several  of  the  "high  explosive"  formulas 
were  largely  composed  of  gun-cotton,  which 
had  been  forgotten  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and 
when  it  was  definitely  displaced  by  nitro-gly- 
cerine  chemists  began  to  experiment  with  it  as 
a  base  for  rifle  powder.  In  June,  1883,  Eugene 
du  Pont  went  to  Bridgeport  to  test  samples  of 
"E.  C."  powder  that  had  been  brought  to  this 
country  by  a  Major  Garrett  who  was  author- 
ized to  sell  the  patent.  The  powder  did  not  do 
what  was  expected  of  it,  and  Major  Garrett 's 
price  was  so  high  that  the  Du  Pont  Company 
declined  to  consider  it.  In  1884  the  Company 
agreed  to  make  samples  of  "Brown  Prismatic 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
16.  1882. 


A  HISTORY  133 

or  Cocoa  Prismatic  powder,"  and  were  working 
on  a  large  press  "moving  slowly  on  a  large 
number  of  prisms."  1  The  chief  difficulty  in 
making  the  new  powder  seems  to  have  been 
the  proper  burning  of  the  charcoal  —  "we  have 
not  yet  succeeded  in  getting  charcoal  in  quan- 
tity of  the  desired  amount  of  carbonization 
and  of  uniform  quality  "; 2  and  three  years  later 
they  were  investigating  the  possibility  of  buy- 
ing the  "Danish  process  of  preparing  brown 
charcoal." 3  As  a  guide  for  incorporating  the 
brown  prismatic,  for  which  the  press  was  un- 
accountably delayed  in  the  machine  shops, 
some  brown  hexagonal  was  fired  at  Sandy 
Hook,  and  on  March  30,  1885,  two  boxes  of 
brown  prismatic  were  sent  to  Communipaw 
"as  ordered  in  letter  from  Ordnance  Office, 
Washington,  December  9,  1884,  which  says, 
'as  soon  as  your  new  press  is  in  working  order, 
please  furnish  us  with  a  sample  as  nearly  as 
possible  like  that  described  within,  which  was 
procured  from  the  United  Rhenish  Westpha- 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
24,  1884. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  July  7. 
1884. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  October 
17,  1887. 


134  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

lian  Powder  Co.,  for  the  12"  B.  L.  Rifle.*'*1 
The  test  of  the  new  Du  Pont  powder  was  so 
satisfactory  that  Eugene  du  Pont  immedi- 
ately patented  the  formula.  A  year  later  the 
Rhenish  Westphalian  Company,  through  their 
London  agent,  offered  to  sell  their  formula  for 
cocoa  powder  to  the  Du  Pont  Company,  with 
the  exclusive  rights  for  the  American  market, 
but  the  Du  Pont  brown  prismatic  was  sat- 
isfactory to  the  Government  and  the  proposi- 
tion was  declined. 

In  March,  1889,  the  Chief  of  Ordnance  wrote 
to  the  Du  Pont  Company  that  he  had  a  report 
that  the  French  Government  was  "making  a 
new  powder  for  the  breech-loading  rifles,  6", 
8",  10"  calibre  and  larger,  giving  2800  ft.  per 
second  velocity  with  1.5  tons  pressure,  using 
about  the  weight  of  the  projectile  in  powder"; 2 
he  desired  that  a  competent  person  be  sent  at 
once  to  France  to  investigate.  Alfred  I.  du 
Pont  sailed  immediately,  instructed  to  learn  as 
much  as  possible  about  both  brown  and  smoke- 
less powders  for  large  guns  and  small  arms  in 
France  and  England,  and  to  find  out  how  many 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
SO,  1885. 

*  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  March 
16  and  May  24,  1889. 


A  HISTORY  135 

of  the  methods  used  in  Europe  might  be  pur- 
chased. The  information  gained  by  Mr.  du 
Pont  satisfied  him  that  the  reported  success  of 
the  French  brown  prismatic  was  much  exag- 
gerated and  the  results  no  better  than  those  of 
the  Du  Fonts'  own  formula.  The  secret  of  the 
French  smokeless  powder  for  small  arms  was 
so  jealously  guarded  by  the  Government  that 
while  the  officials  showed  him  every  courtesy 
he  was  not  allowed  to  see  the  powder  nor. would 
they  talk  of  it.  From  Paris  Mr.  du  Pont  went 
to  England  where  he  saw  the  agent  of  the 
Rhenish  Westphalian  Powder  Company,  of 
Cologne,  and  "learned  that  owing  to  certain 
encouragement  given  them  by  the  United 
States  Government,  they  were  contemplating 
building  mills  in  the  United  States"; 1  and 
that  their  brown  prismatic  powder  gave  much 
the  same  results  as  the  French.  From  England 
he  went  to  Wetteren,  hi  Belgium,  where  Coopal 
et  Cie  made  both  prismatic  powder  and 
smokeless  powder  for  small  arms.  In  Mr.  du 
Pont's  opinion  the  Belgian  powder  was  "su- 
perior to  either  the  French  or  the  Rhenish 
Westphalian  powder."  2  He  made  tentative 

1  A.  I.  du  Pont  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  June  26, 
1889.  *  Ibid. 


136  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

terms  with  both  firms  and  returned  to  America 
in  June  to  give  the  company  the  details  of  his 
mission.  Satisfied  that  the  Du  Pont  brown 
prismatic  was  quite  as  good  as  that  made  in 
either  Belgium  or  Germany,  and  that  their 
experiments  in  smokeless  powder  would  soon 
have  a  successful  result,  the  members  of  the 
firm  were  not  eager  to  pay  a  cash  price  and 
heavy  royalties  for  the  secret  formulas  of 
either  company,  but  the  Government  insisted 
on  the  purchase  and  agreed  to  pay  the  royal- 
ties. Agreements  were,  therefore,  made  with 
both  of  the  European  companies  in  November, 
and  Charles  I.  du  Pont,  who  had  worked  with 
Eugene  du  Pont  in  his  experiments  with  Gov- 
ernment powders,  went  to  Europe  to  learn  the 
methods  of  manufacture. 

Henry  du  Pont  died  on  the  8th  of  August, 
1889,  after  an  illness  of  almost  two  months. 
For  fifty-five  years  he  had  been  a  powder- 
maker,  for  thirty-nine  of  them  the  head  of  the 
firm.  In  the  first  years  of  his  authority  he  made 
many  important  innovations  in  the  business; 
he  was  an  eager  and  skilful  financier  always; 
but  as  he  grew  older  changes  annoyed  him.  His 
father  had  built  a  little  office  between  his  house 
and  the  gate  to  the  mills,  and  there  with  a  staff 


A  HISTORY  137 

of  four  clerks  and  a  boy  General  du  Pont  built 
up  an  enormous  business  of  which  he  —  and  he 
only  —  knew  every  detail.  He  fought  off  the 
approach  of  railways  as  long  as  it  was  possible, 
and  perhaps  he  was  not  alone  in  a  little  feeling 
of  regret  when  in  1889  the  teams  of  six  mules 
with  the  big  covered  wagons  were  displaced  by 
a  branch  of  the  Wilmington  and  Northern 
Railroad.  The  powder  mills  that  often  ran  day 
and  night  and  the  roads  between  them  were 
lighted,  if  that  word  may  be  used,  by  very  in- 
efficient lanterns,  and  it  was  only  in  response 
to  a  somewhat  peremptory  suggestion  from  the 
Chief  of  Ordnance  that  in  1889  an  electric- 
light  plant  was  installed.  In  1884  an  applica- 
tion was  made  that  would  have  relieved  Gen- 
eral du  Pont  of  at  least  a  part  of  his  work,  but 
the  answer  was  decisive,  "We  have  no  use  for 
a  stenographer  and  do  not  wish  to  employ  any 
one  in  that  capacity."  1 

It  may  have  been  partly  the  simplicity  of  his 
surroundings  that  appealed  to  the  affection  of 
the  workmen.  They  could  always  find  him  in 
the  little  office,  and  he  never  refused  to  help  or 
advise  them  when  they  came  to  him.  Outsiders 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Febru- 
ary 12,  1884. 


138  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

were  a  little  afraid  of  the  conservatism  and  de- 
cision of  General  du  Font's  manner,  but  "the 
men"  —  the  powder-men,  the  teamsters,  the 
farmers  —  loved  "Mr.  Henry"  and  came  to 
him  with  all  their  perplexities,  confident  of  his 
wisdom  and  his  friendship. 


CHAPTER  XI 

1890-1902 

EUGENE  DU  PONT  and  his  brother, 
Francis  G.  du  Pont,  were  the  practical 
powder-men  of  the  firm  after  Henry  du  Pont's 
death.  Eugene,  ten  years  older  than  his  brother, 
became  the  senior  partner.  Colonel  Henry  A. 
du  Pont  continued  the  work  that  had  been  his 
under  his  father's  management  —  apart  from 
those  duties  his  time  was  much  occupied  by 
the  settlement  of  his  father's  estate.  William 
du  Pont  resigned  from  the  company,  but  con- 
tinued to  be  president  of  the  Repauno  Chemi- 
cal Company,  the  Hercules  Powder  Company, 
and  the  Hercules  Torpedo  Company  until 
1892,  when  he  left  active  business.  Three  new 
members  were  added  to  the  firm  —  Charles  I. 
and  Alfred  I.  du  Pont,  who  for  five  years  had 
been  superintendents  in  the  powder  yards,  and 
Alexis  L,  2d,  a  brother  of  Eugene  and  Francis; 
he  had  been  successful  in  other  enterprises,  but 
was  persuaded  to  join  his  brothers  who  were 
inexperienced  hi  business  methods  and  some- 
what dismayed  at  the  task  before  them. 


140  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

It  was  quite  necessary  to  reorganize  the 
management  of  the  business;  the  changes  be- 
gan in  the  office.  A  larger  building  was  at  once 
planned,  but  work  on  it  was  delayed  by  an  ex- 
plosion in  1890  and  it  was  not  occupied  until 
1891.  In  this  new  office  a  reasonable  number  of 
clerks  and  stenographers  were  employed.  The 
innumerable  agencies  were  reduced  to  only 
eight  or  ten  "branch  offices"  where  powder 
was  sold  direct  to  the  dealers.  The  staff  of  the 
New  York  office  was  materially  reduced  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  work  that  had  been  done 
there  was  accomplished  at  the  home  office.  The 
Philadelphia  office  was  closed.  A  new  wharf 
was  built  in  the  Delaware  River  at  which  ves- 
sels could  discharge  or  receive  cargoes  and  be 
directly  met  by  freight  cars. 

In  one  way,  however,  and  that  a  very  im- 
portant way,  the  firm's  methods  were  unal- 
tered. The  business  was  entirely  managed  by 
the  senior  partner.  It  was  customary  for  him  to 
consult  the  other  men  in  matters  that  con- 
cerned their  departments  of  the  industry,  but 
he  was  hi  no  way  bound  to  accept  their  advice, 
and  tradition  made  them  hesitate  to  offer  it  or 
to  ask  questions.  The  head  of  the  firm  was  ex 
officio  head  of  the  family.  The  homes  of  the 


A  HISTORY  141 

different  partners  belonged  to  the  company, 
and  it  made  any  additions  or  improvements 
that  were  necessary  and  took  no  rental.  For 
the  first  sixty  years  of  its  existence  the  individ- 
ual partners  did  not  even  own  horses;  when  a 
carriage  was  wanted  a  message  was  sent  to  the 
office  and  a  vehicle  of  some  sort  usually  arrived 
in  due  time  —  there  were  never  any  too  many 
of  them.  Checks  were  cashed  at  the  office  and 
all  mail  went  through  the  office  and  was  usually 
sorted  by  the  head  of  the  firm  himself.  The 
houses  were  near  together  and  the  partners 
were  men  of  very  simple  and  domestic  tastes, 
to  whom  it  would  never  have  occurred  to  want 
more  money  than  was  necessary  for  the  needs 
of  their  quiet  lives.  No  one  of  them  ever 
thought  of  drawing  his  full  income;  they  gave 
their  allegiance  to  the  Company  and  its  chief 
and  with  it  all  their  ability  and  confidence.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  the  accumulating  profits 
grew  very  rapidly,  nor  that  most  of  them  were 
invested  in  the  smaller  powder  mills  that  were 
constantly  coming  under  the  company's  con- 
trol. Since  1880  the  company  had  bought 
Lammot  du  Font's  shares  hi  the  Repauno 
Chemical  Company,  the  Hercules  Powder 
Company,  the  Hecla  Powder  Company,  and 


142  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

the  Hercules  Torpedo  Company;  some  shares 
in  the  Marcellus  Powder  Company,  the  Laflin 
Powder  Manufacturing  Company,  and  with 
Hazard  and  Laflin  and  Rand  had  organized 
the  Standard  Cartridge  Company,  which  was 
founded  because  the  older  companies  were 
making  cartridges  loaded  with  inferior  powder. 
In  addition  to  these  interests  the  new  Du  Pont 
mills  at  Mooar,  Iowa,  were  almost  ready  to 
furnish  large  quantities  of  blasting  powder. 

To  offset  this  prosperity  the  losses  suffered 
by  the  new  firm  in  the  first  year  of  its  existence 
were  tremendous.  At  the  very  end  of  Henry  du 
Pont's  regime,  in  May,  1889,  the  building  in 
the  Upper  Yard  known  as  the  "Refinery," 
where  saltpetre  and  other  raw  materials  were 
stored  and  refined,  caught  fire  and  was  partly 
destroyed.  Thanks  to  Eugene  du  Pont's  con- 
trol of  the  situation  there  were  no  fatalities, 
though  the  wooden  building,  with  two  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  of  saltpetre,  was  within 
a  few  yards  of  two  large  powder  mills.  The 
melted  saltpetre,  which  cannot  be  fought  with 
water,  was  running  directly  toward  the  mills 
when  Mr.  du  Pont  ordered  that  ditches  should 
be  dug  to  carry  it  into  the  Brandywine  and 
himself  led  a  party  of  men  who  drenched  the 


A  HISTORY  143 

mills  and  the  powder  to  protect  them  from  the 
burning  shingles  of  the  Refinery. 

In  the  same  year  there  began  a  series  of  in- 
cendiary fires  on  the  company's  farms.  In 
every  case  the  fire  was  confined  to  the  barn  in 
which  it  began,  but  other  buildings  and  even 
the  mills  were  dangerously  near.  The  first  one 
was  on  December  26,  1889,  then  January  10, 
November  8  and  12,  1890,  and  the  last  one  on 
November  12,  1893.  The  culprits  were  eventu- 
ally found  and  imprisoned,  but  the  unrest  and 
tension  that  are  caused  by  such  a  situation, 
particularly  when  it  exists  in  the  neighborhood 
of  explosives,  added  infinitely  to  the  difficulties 
of  the  new  management. 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  of  October  7, 
1890,  after  seven  years  without  a  serious  acci- 
dent, the  Upper  Yard  was  torn  to  pieces  by 
seven  explosions  occurring  within  eight  sec- 
onds and  consuming  one  hundred  tons  of 
powder;  twelve  persons  were  killed  and  twenty 
wounded.  At  first  it  was  feared  that  the  "barn- 
burners" were  responsible  for  this  horror,  too; 
but  there  proved  to  be  no  doubt  that  in  sealing 
a  tin  box  of  prismatic  powder  the  soldering 
iron  had  been  overheated  and  the  powder  ex- 
ploded. The  man  who  was  doing  the  work  evi- 


144  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

dently  saw  what  was  about  to  happen  in  time 
to  run  several  yards  before  the  concussion 
killed  him.  Five  of  the  Du  Pont  homes  were 
badly  shaken  and  many  of  the  workmen's 
houses  were  destroyed;  deep  cavities  showed 
where  the  mills  had  stood.  The  sympathy  and 
offers  of  help  that  came  by  every  mail  did  much 
to  encourage  the  members  of  the  firm.  Eugene 
du  Font's  answer  to  one  of  these  letters  shows 
his  deep  appreciation  of  the  writer's  generosity, 
and  was  the  beginning  of  one  of  his  very  few 
intimate  friendships: 

To  SCHUYLER  PARSONS,  ESQ. 
New  York  City 

October  10,  1890 

DEAR  SIR:  Our  sorrows  for  the  afflictions  of 
the  families  of  our  workmen  have  been  indeed 
lightened  by  such  a  manifestation  of  your  sym- 
pathy as  your  letter  of  the  ninth  instant.  Your 
kindness  is  written  in  our  "  book  of  remem- 
brance," there  to  remain  as  evidence  of  your 
friendship.  Concerning  the  losses  and  needs  of 
all  our  hands  —  we  purpose  to  them  and  their 
families  and  to  all  who  have  suffered,  to  bring 
out  of  chaos  an  orderly  state  of  affairs,  to  re- 
store everything  except  life  to  all;  to  nourish, 


A  HISTORY  145 

protect  and  guide  all  and  to  do  everything  pos- 
sible for  man  to  do.  Such  being  our  purpose  it 
will  not  be  necessary  to  use  your  check,  which 
we  therefore  herein  return  with  as  many  and  as 
sincere  thanks  as  it  is  possible  for  any  one  to 
give. 

We  remain  very  truly  your  friends 

E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  AND  Co. 

As  soon  as  Francis  G.  du  Pont  had  started 
the  Mooar  Mills  in  Iowa,  which  began  making 
powder  in  April,  1890,  he  devoted  all  his  energy 
to  the  development  of  smokeless  powder.  Pat- 
ent after  patent  was  offered  to  the  company. 
In  1883  they  had  refused  to  buy  the  formula 
for  the  "E.  C."  powder,  chiefly  because  the 
samples  did  not  give  the  promised  results;  but 
its  quality  improved  and  by  1892  it  was  a  very 
important  competitor.  As  a  result  of  Alfred  I. 
du  Pont's  investigations  the  formula  used  by 
Coopal  et  Cie  in  Belgium  was  bought  and 
Charles  I.  du  Pont  went  to  their  factory  to 
learn  how  it  and  the  brown  prismatic  were 
made,  but  by  the  time  he  returned  the  Ord- 
nance Department  had  found  that  Hudson 
Maxim's  smokeless  powder  gave  better  results 
than  Coopal's,  although  Maxim's  powder  gave 


146  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

such  high  pressures  that  it  was  not  considered 
satisfactory.  Negotiations  were  immediately 
begun  with  Maxim,  and  samples  from  different 
European  mills  were  sent  for.  Nobel  developed 
a  formula  that  the  Company  declined  to  pur- 
chase, the  patent  of  which  seemed  likely  to  in- 
terfere with  Maxim's.  It  was  evident  that  none 
of  the  smokeless  powder  on  the  market  was 
satisfactory,  but  the  demand  for  such  a  powder 
was  insistent. 

Partly  because  the  powder  yards  were  al- 
ready crowded  with  mills,  partly  because  of  the 
danger  of  having  gun-cotton,  the  base  of  the 
new  powder,  near  gunpowder  mills,  but  chiefly 
for  better  shipping  facilities,  a  large  tract  of 
land  was  bought  at  Carney's  Point,  on  the 
Delaware  River  opposite  Wilmington,  and  a 
wharf  was  built  there  in  April,  1891.  Experi- 
mental laboratories  were  constructed,  and 
Francis  G.  du  Pont,  with  the  assistance  at  first 
of  Pierre  S.  du  Pont l  and  afterward  Alexis  I., 
3d,2  Francis  I.,3  and  A.  Felix  du  Pont,3  worked 
indefatigably  to  develop  a  "Du  Pont  Smoke- 
less.*' It  was  not  till  November,  1893,  that  they 
felt  sufficiently  sure  of  their  formula  to  send 

1  Son  of  Lammot  du  Pont.          *  Son  of  Eugene  du  Pont. 
»  Son  of  Francis  G.  du  Pont. 


A  HISTORY  147 

samples  to  the  different  cartridge  factories  for 
testing,  though  early  in  the  summer  they  had 
"furnished  twenty-five  or  thirty  small  cans  to 
our  friends,  to  get  an  opinion  on  the  powder."  1 
Six  months  later  they  had  "radically  changed 
the  method  of  manufacture  since  last  fall;  put 
in  new  machinery  and  buildings.  We  are  now 
making  a  very  fine  grade  of  powder  —  in  every 
way  better  than  the  first.  It  is  not  yet  on  the 
market,  because  we  desire  to  have  a  stock  on 
hand  before  we  begin  to  distribute  it." 2  And 
soon  after:  "Our  new  smokeless  powder  is 
ready  for  the  market,  as  yet  only  for  shot  guns; 
we  have  not  yet  adapted  it  for  rifles  or  revol- 
vers." 3  The  following  spring  they  were  able  to 
offer  a  bid  for  smokeless  rifle  powder,  of  which 
the  Government  wanted  twenty  thousand 
pounds. 

The  smokeless  powder  of  that  day  had  a  new 
quality  to  recommend  it.  One  is  not  apt  to 
think  of  a  color  scheme  in  gunpowder,  but  a 
revulsion  of  feeling  from  the  old  black  and  the 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  August 
19,  1893. 

*  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May 
4,  1894. 

*  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  June  22, 
1894. 


148  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

more  recent  brown  powder  seems  to  have  run 
riot  in  the  new  manufacture:  "We  can  dye  the 
Smokeless  almost  any  color  desired.  We  send 
you  a  box  of  thirteen  smokeless  powders  —  all 
of  these  are  on  the  market  and  you  can  judge  of 
the  colors.  They  are  Giant;  Walsrode;  Robin 
Hood,  made  in  Canada;  E.  C.  powder;  W.  A., 
Laflin  and  Rand;  Schultz;  Austin;  S.  S.,  Haz- 
ard; Gold  Dust,  made  in  California  and  we 
think,  in  New  York;  King;  Du  Pont;  Trois- 
dorf.  We  also  send  you  some  small  bottles  of 
Du  Pont  powder  dyed  various  colors.  Some  are 
very  pretty.  If  you  do  not  like  any  of  them  we 
can  send  others,  as  we  have  a  multitude  of 
shades."  * 

In  1896  the  Navy  Department  ordered  from 
the  Du  Pont  Company  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds  of  smokeless  cannon  powder  to  be 
made  by  the  "Navy's  own  formula."  It  re- 
quired both  alcohol  and  ether,  neither  of  which 
was  used  in  the  Du  Pont  powder.  The  Army 
and  Navy  never  used  the  same  powders  —  nor 
the  same  guns  —  and  in  time  of  war  the  differ- 
ence of  their  requirements  added  not  a  little  to 
the  problems  of  the  manufacturer. 

1  Correspondence  of  £.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  June  3, 
1896. 


A  HISTORY  149 

The  agreements  concerning  brown  prismatic 
and  smokeless  powder  that  were  made  in  1889 
with  the  Belgian  and  German  firms  had  al- 
most expired  in  1897,  when  a  new  competition 
threatened  all  manufacturers  of  explosives  in 
the  country.  "  The  Rhenish  Westphalian  Gun- 
powder mills  of  Cologne  propose  to  locate  a 
branch  of  their  works  in  New  Jersey  near  New 
Brunswick.  They  have  bought  about  five  hun- 
dred acres.  Mr.  Barksdale l  and  Mr.  Fay 2  sail 
to-day  for  Germany  to  see  whether  anything 
can  be  done  as  to  a  withdrawal  from  this  enter- 
prise. It  would  not  be  advisable  to  make  any 
payment  to  head  it  off,  and  if  anything  is  done 
it  will  be  on  a  traffic  agreement  concerning  dy- 
namite." 3  Mr.  Barksdale  and  Mr.  Fay  found 
that  the  matter  could  not  be  settled  on  a  dyna- 
mite basis  —  smokeless  powder  had  to  be  con- 
sidered; and  in  July  Bernard  Peyton,  of  the 
California  Powder  Works,  and  Eugene  du  Pont 
went  abroad  to  reenforce  the  American  manu- 
facturers. Mr.  du  Pont  was  at  home  again  early 
in  August  with  the  outlines  of  an  agreement 
that  was  completed  in  October,  to  be  operative 

1  Of  the  Repauno  Chemical  Company. 

*  Of  the  .(Etna  Powder  Company. 

*  Correspondence  of  £.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May 
19,  1897. 


150  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

till  1907,  which  effectually  kept  the  largest 
German  manufacturers  out  of  the  United 
States.  The  necessity  of  such  an  arrangement 
was  explained  in  a  letter  from  Eugene  du  Pont 
to  Henry  Belin  written  on  December  30,  1897: 
"To  give  you  briefly  the  history  of  the  reasons 
why  this  agreement  was  made  I  would  say  that 
early  in  April  about  six  hundred  acres  of  land 
were  purchased  by  the  Europeans,  near  James- 
burg,  New  Jersey.  Work  was  commenced 
with  promptness,  and  sufficient  buildings  were 
erected  to  accommodate  the  manufacture  of 
metallic  blasting  caps.  So  soon  as  we  heard  of 
this  enterprise,  after  due  consultation  with 
other  companies  in  interest,  it  was  decided  that 
some  one  had  better  go  to  Europe  and  see  what 
the  Europeans  intended  to  do.  Consequently 
Mr.  Fay  and  Mr.  Barksdale  made  the  trip  to 
Europe  leaving  New  York  on  the  19th  of  May. 
After  reaching  Europe  they  had  many  inter- 
views with  the  Europeans,  and  found  that  the 
latter  were  determined  not  only  to  manufac- 
ture blasting  caps,  but  to  extend  their  opera- 
tions to  all  explosives;  black  powder,  rifle  and 
blasting,  dynamite  and  smokeless  powder.  The 
Europeans  were  especially  desirous  of  entering 
into  the  manufacture  of  rifle  and  blasting  pow- 


A  HISTORY  151 

der,  because  smokeless  powder  in  Europe  had 
made  great  inroads  on  their  sporting  powder 
business;  and  the  flameless  explosives  had  prac- 
tically driven  the  blasting  powder  out  of  the 
European  markets.  Their  machinery,  there- 
fore, was  standing  idle,  and  they  had  intended 
to  come  to  this  country  and  put  up  blasting 
powder  mills,  not  at  the  Jamesburg  plant,  but 
wherever  the  prices  and  delivery  were  such 
that  they  could  run  their  mills  at  a  profit.  The 
anthracite  region  was  no  doubt  considered  by 
them,  as  well  as  every  other  large  coal-produc- 
ing centre. 

"Messrs.  Barksdale  and  Fay  handled  the 
negotiations  as  well  as  it  was  possible  to  do; 
and  while  some  concessions  were  made,  in  the 
main  they  were  compelled  to  accept  the  situa- 
tion as  they  found  it. 

"By  the  agreement  with  the  Europeans  the 
danger  of  this  competition  was  removed,  and 
in  order  that  the  payments  for  preventing  the 
competition  should  be  made  conveniently,  it 
was  decided  that  Smokeless  Military  Powder 
should  be  the  basis  on  which  the  payment 
should  be  computed;  and  while  smokeless  mili- 
tary powder  was  thus  used,  it  was  only  so  be- 
cause of  convenience." 


152  DV  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

One  wonders  what  effect  such  a  system  of 
factories  as  was  planned  by  the  Germans 
would  have  had  on  the  history  of  the  world  in 
1918  —  or  earlier. 

When  on  April  25,  1898,  the  United  States 
declared  war  with  Spain  the  powder  supply 
was  in  a  very  disorganized  condition.  It  had 
been  admitted  in  Washington  that  the  Navy 
had  not  enough  powder  to  suffice  for  two  hours' 
hot  engagement.  The  magazines  were  empty; 
not  because  of  neglect,  but  because  "prismatic 
powder  had  seen  its  day," x  and  smokeless 
powder  was  improving  rapidly,  though  as  yet 
its  keeping  qualities  were  uncertain.  In  Febru- 
ary the  Government  ordered  two  hundred 
thousand  pounds  of  smokeless  cannon  powder; 
the  largest  guns  required  brown  prismatic,  of 
which  one  million  pounds  were  ordered  for  the 
Navy  early  in  July  —  to  be  delivered  at  the 
rate  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  a  day.  The 
existing  presses  were  insufficient,  but  a  press 
had  shortly  before  been  invented  by  Alfred  I. 
du  Pont  that  turned  out  powder  much  more 
rapidly  than  the  old  ones;  they  were  hurriedly 
installed  and  ran  night  and  day.  "The  supply 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Janu- 
ary 23,  1899. 


A  HISTORY  153 

was  equal  to  the  demand  and  at  no  time  was 
the  Government  crippled  for  want  of  this  ma- 
terial." l  Hardly  was  the  work  well  under  way 
when  Cervera's  fleet  was  "  destroyed  "  and  the 
order  countermanded.  The  Du  Pont  and  Cali- 
fornia Companies  supplied  all  the  prismatic 
powder  that  was  used,  but  theL  Government  had 
to  "import  some  smokeless  powder  to  suit  the 
guns  and  ammunition  of  the  New  Orleans  and 
other  cruisers  —  bought  in  Europe." 2 

Brown  prismatic  powder  was  not  made  in 
any  quantity  after  the  Spanish  War;  but  Eu- 
gene du  Pont  was  mistaken  hi  believing  that 
"the  smokeless  military  powder  business  has 
seen  its  maximum." 3  The  Carney's  Point  capac- 
ity has  grown  steadily,  and  the  powder  has 
improved  with  the  growth  of  the  plant  until 
Du  Pont  Smokeless,  both  for  cannon  and  small 
arms,  is  believed  to  be  the  best  ever  produced. 

For  many  years  the  Navy  Department  had  a 
small  powder  plant  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  they  secured  an  appro- 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  Janu- 
ary 23.  1899. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  April 
18,  1898. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co,  May 
28,  1900. 


154  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

priation  from  Congress  for  the  construction  of 
a  large  smokeless  powder  plant  at  Indian  Head, 
Maryland,  where  powder  might  be  made  by 
their  own  formulas,  hoping  to  make  it  at  less 
cost  than  the  manufacturers'  price.  "The  offi- 
cers entrusted  with  its  supervision  visited  our 
[the  Du  Pont  Company's]  several  plants  and 
asked  for  and  received  plans  and  blue-prints 
which  would  enable  them  to  construct  a  plant 
with  the  greatest  economy  and  of  the  greatest 
efficiency  for  the  Government.  When  the  ap- 
propriation was  granted  for  the  Army  plant 
erected  at  Picatinny,  New  Jersey,  we  were  re- 
quested by  the  Chief  of  Ordnance  of  the  Army 
to  assist  them  in  the  preparation  of  plans  and, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  their  engineers  had  access  to 
our  plants  and  their  plans  were  sent  to  us  for 
criticism  and  amendment.  We  furnished  them 
with  blue-prints  for  some  of  their  work.  All 
absolutely  without  compensation." 1 

Among  those  most  interested  in  the  develop- 
ment of  smokeless  powder  was  Captain  Sidney 
Stuart,  U.S.A.,  who  was  detailed  to  Wilming- 
ton to  inspect  Government  powders.  He  was 
eager  to  try  for  himself  certain  experiments  in 
shell-loading,  which  were  quite  apart  from  the 

1  Testimony  of  J.  A.  Haskell,  March  10, 1910. 


A  HISTORY  155 

work  of  the  Du  Pont  Mills,  and  for  that  pur- 
pose he  had  a  small  laboratory  at  Carney's 
Point.  He  and  several  workmen  were  killed  in 
this  building  in  April,  1899.  Eugene  du  Pont 
wrote  a  very  clear  account  of  the  unfortunate 
accident:  "No  one  had  any  idea  that  com- 
pressing wet  gun-cotton  into  a  13  in.  shell 
would  be  attended  with  danger.  The  operation 
was  as  follows :  The  cavity  of  the  shell,  about  8 
in.  in  diameter,  was  lined  with  thin  copper.  The 
conical  head  was  filled  with  gun-cotton  sawed 
from  blocks  to  fit  it.  Two  compressed  blocks, 
full  size  of  the  cavity,  were  placed  upon  the 
gun-cotton  sawed  to  fit  the  conical  point.  After 
that,  loosely  compressed  gun-cotton  containing 
seventy  per  cent  of  water  was  inserted  in  the 
end  of  the  shell  and  forced  home  by  hydrau- 
lic pressure.  The  pressure  was  ten  thousand 
pounds  per  square  inch  and  enough  to  reduce 
the  soft  blocks  of  gun-cotton  to  about  two 
inches.  The  water  flowed  incessantly  from  the 
end  of  the  shell  as  the  gun-cotton  was  com- 
pressed. When  the  gun-cotton  was  fully  com- 
pressed it  contained  at  the  least  eighteen  per 
cent  of  water.  One  shell  had  been  loaded  in  the 
forenoon  of  Saturday,  and  the  work  on  the 
second  shell  (which  exploded)  had  proceeded 


156  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

until  about  twenty  pounds  of  gun-cotton  had 
been  placed  therein  under  pressure.  We  have 
pressed  very  large  quantities  of  gun-cotton  in 
the  regular  shapes,  and  never  had  any  accident 
of  any  kind."  1  In  another  letter  he  said:  "It  is 
a  fact  that  all  of  the  gun-cotton  in  the  shell  did 
not  explode  in  the  explosion  which  resulted  in 
the  loss  of  life  of  Captain  Stuart  and  five  other 
men.  We  found  quite  a  large  amount  of  this 
gun-cotton  and  no  doubt  some  of  it  was  scat- 
tered; the  shell  and  casing  were  broken  into 
very  many  fragments,  some  of  them  larger 
than  others;  the  men  standing  around  were 
badly  cut  to  pieces." 2 

The  amount  of  work  involved  in  settling  the 
estate  of  Henry  du  Pont  brought  to  the  firm  a 
realization  of  the  great  volume  of  business  that 
was  being  done  by  the  company.  Colonel  du 
Pont  advised  that  the  partnership  be  made  a 
corporation;  the  plan  was  much  discussed  and 
there  was  some  opposition,  but  after  various 
compromises  were  made  the  corporation  was 
formed  under  the  laws  of  Delaware  on  the  23d 
of  October,  1899.  Eugene  du  Pont  became 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May  1, 
1899. 

1  Correspondence  of  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  &  Co.,  May 
27,  1899. 


A  HISTORY  157 

president;  his  two  brothers  and  Colonel  du 
Pont,  vice-presidents;  and  Charles  I.  du  Pont, 
secretary  and  treasurer. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  no  change  in 
the  administration  of  the  business;  directors' 
meetings  were  called,  where  the  older  men  dis- 
cussed affairs  in  the  informal  way  that  they 
had  always  done  —  the  younger  men  were  usu- 
ally too  busy  to  be  present.  Eugene  du  Pont 
was,  as  Henry  du  Pont  had  been,  the  one  mem- 
ber of  the  Company  who  was  in  touch  with  all 
its  workings  —  who  wrote  all  the  letters  in  any 
way  concerning  the  policy  of  the  business. 
Francis  G.  du  Pont  was  fully  occupied  at  Car- 
ney's Point  and  in  keeping  a  general  supervi- 
sion of  the  different  plants  that  had  come  under 
the  company's  control;  his  brother,  Dr.  Alexis 
I.  du  Pont,  had  a  share  in  the  administration 
of  both  the  Du  Pont  Company  and  the  Eastern 
Dynamite  Company;  Colonel  du  Font's  out- 
side interests  demanded  the  greater  part  of  his 
time;  and  Charles  and  Alfred  were  trained  only 
in  the  manufacture  of  powder. 

In  January,  1902,  Eugene  du  Pont  had  a 
sudden  attack  of  pneumonia  and  died  on  the 
28th,  after  a  week's  illness.  He  had  been  in  au- 
thority for  eleven  years,  during  which  time  the 


158  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

business  had  grown  rapidly,  and, the  magnitude 
of  the  responsibility  appalled  the  five  men  who, 
with  Eugene  du  Font's  heirs,  now  owned  it. 
Since  Henry  du  Font's  death  the  Eastern  Dy- 
namite Company  had  been  formed  in  1895,  by 
a  coalition  of  the  Repauno  Chemical  Com- 
pany, the  Hercules  Powder  Company,  and  the 
Atlantic  Dynamite  Company,  and  had  bought 
the  Dittmar  Powder  and  Chemical  Company. 
In  that  year  large  numbers  of  shares  had  been 
bought  hi  the  Enterprise  Powder  Company 
and  the  Chattanooga  Powder  Company.  In 

1896  the  Phcenix  Powder  Company,  the  South- 
ern Powder  Company,  the  Chamberlin  Cart- 
ridge and  Target  Company,  and  the  Equitable 
Powder  Company  were  added  to  the  list.  In 

1897  some  stock  was  bought  in  the  American 
Ordnance   Company,   of   Washington,   D.C.; 
and  the  Maxim  Powder  and  Torpedo  Com- 
pany,  "buildings,  machinery,  and  patents," 
was  bought  outright.  In  1900  a  large  proportion 
of  stock  was  bought  in  the  Peyton  Chemical 
Works;  and  in  1902  the  Indiana  Powder  Com- 
pany and  the  North  Western  Powder  Company 
were  bought.  Some  of  these  properties  were 
owned  by  the  Du  Fonts  alone;  most  of  them 
were  partly  owned  by  the  Laflin  and  Rand 


A  HISTORY  159 

Powder  Company;  and  in  some  of  them  only  a 
few  shares  were  held  by  either  company. 

Colonel  du  Pont,  Francis,  and  Alexis  were  in 
turn  asked  to  take  the  presidency  and  each  re- 
fused; Colonel  du  Pont,  because  his  personal 
affairs  required  all  his  time;  Alexis  and  Fran- 
cis, because  they  were  too  ill  to  undertake  new 
work  —  they  both  died  in  November,  1904. 
The  two  younger  men,  having  no  business 
training,  were  not  considered  eligible;  the  older 
of  them,  Charles  I.  du  Pont,  was  moreover  in 
very  bad  health  and  died  before  the  end  of  the 
year.  It  was  suggested  that  the  presidency  be 
offered  to  Hamilton  M.  Barksdale,  who  had 
been  an  official  of  the  Repauno  Company  since 
1887,  and  was  a  very  able  business  man,  but  he 
declined  to  consider  it  "until  they  had  ex- 
hausted all  efforts  to  secure  a  man  of  the  name 
to  take  the  helm." 

Francis  G.  du  Pont  was  ill  and  despondent 
and  could  see  no  hope  for  the  success  of  the 
company  if  it  were  handed  over  to  the  next 
generation;  he  advised  that  the  business  be 
sold  outright,  preferably  to  the  Laflin  and 
•Rand  Powder  Company.  To  Alfred  I.  du  Pont, 
however,  it  was  intolerable  that  having  reached 
so  remarkable  a  position  in  the  business  world 


160  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

the  company  should  be  sold  to  strangers  be- 
cause the  fourth  generation,  of  whom  there 
were  twenty  young  men  and  boys,  was  con- 
sidered unable  to  carry  on  the  industry  that 
their  great-grandfather  had  founded.  He  im- 
mediately offered  to  buy  the  business  at  what- 
ever price  might  be  considered  just.  Francis 
and  Alexis  du  Pont  hesitated  because  Alfred, 
though  an  experienced  manufacturer,  was  not 
a  business  man,  but  Colonel  du  Pont  gladly 
agreed  to  help  formulate  any  reasonable  plan 
that  would  keep  the  company  in  the  hands  of 
the  family. 

Alfred  at  once  communicated  with  his  two 
cousins,  Thomas  Coleman  and  Pierre  Samuel 
du  Pont,  and  asked  them  to  help  him  to  arrange 
for  the  purchase.  Pierre  S.  du  Pont  had  been 
with  the  company  for  nine  years,  first  in  the 
black  powder  mills,  then  as  chemist  in  the 
smokeless  powder  laboratories,  but  had  re- 
signed in  1899  and  had  been  living  in  Ohio, 
engaged  in  real  estate  and  other  administrative 
and  financial  business  that  served  as  an  excel- 
lent preparation  for  his  new  responsibilities. 
Coleman  du  Pont  was  a  man  of  varied  business 
experience,  with  a  remarkable  ability  for 
organization. 


A  HISTORY  161 

The  value  of  the  old  company  was  the  first 
subject  for  consideration.  The  members  sug- 
gested a  price  of  $12,000,000  which  was  ten- 
tatively agreed  to;  and  on  the  1st  of  March, 
just  a  month  after  the  death  of  Eugene  du 
Pont,  the  office  was  quite  informally  turned 
over  to  the  new  owners,  of  whom  T.  Coleman 
du  Pont  was  president;  Alfred  I.  du  Pont,  vice- 
president;  Pierre  S.  du  Pont,  treasurer;  and 
Charles  I.  du  Pont,  secretary.  A  month  later 
an  examination  of  the  books  of  the  company 
was  completed  and  the  value  of  $12,000,000 
accepted.  Payment  was  made  in  $12,000,000 
four  per  cent  notes  and  twenty-five  per  cent 
($3,000,000)  of  the  stock  of  a  new  corporation, 
E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  Company,  after- 
wards changed  to  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours 
and  Company. 

In  1802  E.  I.  du  Pont  de  Nemours  started  to 
build  his  mills;  in  1902  the  fourth  generation 
of  his  family  began  the  second  century  of  the 
industry  that  bore  the  name  —  his  name  — 
under  which  it  had,  as  he  hoped  it  would, 
"earned  a  reputation  greater  than  that  of 
others." 

The  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  settle- 


162  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

ment  of  the  Du  Pont  family  in  Delaware  was 
celebrated  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1902;  a  little 
ahead  of  time,  for  it  was  on  the  19th  that 
Eleuthere  Irenee  du  Pont  and  his  family  came 
to  the  log  house  that  he  had  bought  on  the 
Brandywine.  There  were  three  thousand  people 
at  the  fete,  the  Du  Pont  men  with  their  fam- 
ilies, the  powder-men  with  theirs,  and  a  few 
outside  guests  who  were  friends  of  long  stand- 
ing. There  was  dancing  and  target  shooting, 
music  and  fireworks  —  merry-making  of  all 
kinds;  but  to  the  older  powder-men,  whether 
Du  Ponts  or  not,  there  was  some  sadness.  They 
were  at  the  end  of  the  old  regime  —  the  begin- 
ning of  the  new.  In  the  task  that  was  before 
them,  and  that  they  have  so  splendidly  accom- 
plished, it  was  impossible  that  the  heads  of  the 
company  should,  like  their  fathers,  work  side 
by  side  with  the  men.  They  were  in  charge  of 
great  industries,  not  of  a  few  powder  mills,  and 
they  could  no  longer  be  the  foremen  of  the 
yards  —  the  friends  and  guardians  of  the  in- 
dividuals in  their  employ.  The  old  homes  in 
which  Eleuthere  Irenee  du  Pont  and  his  son 
Alfred  lived  were  too  near  the  mills  for  safety, 
so  greatly  had  the  explosive  force  of  powder 
increased.  The  "new  office"  was  too  small  and 


A  HISTORY  163 

too  far  from  town;  a  much  larger  one  was 
rented  in  the  Equitable  Building  in  Wilming- 
ton. Saltpetre  powder  was  no  longer  the  most 
important  of  explosives,  and  the  preservation 
of  the  Brandywine  mills  had  become  a  matter 
of  sentiment  rather  than  of  necessity. 

A  few  days  after  the  "Centennial  Celebra- 
tion" a  committee  of  the  employees  of  the 
mills  met  the  members  of  the  old  and  the  new 
companies  at  the  office  in  order  to  give  a  for- 
mal expression  of  their  appreciation  and  affec- 
tion; their  resolutions  were,  in  part: 

"We,  the  employees  of  the  E.  I.  du  Pont  de 
Nemours  and  Company,  at  the  home  works  on 
the  Brandywine,  in  meeting  assembled  have 
hereby  resolved:  That  the  record  of  one  hun- 
dred years  in  the  manufacture  of  Gunpowder 
made  by  the  Du  Pont  Company  as  a  family  is 
also  shared  with  pride  by  many  of  the  em- 
ployees whose  fathers  and  grandfathers  have 
been  identified  with  the  history  of  the  works. 

"Resolved:  That  as  one  generation  after  an- 
other passes  away  the  record  left  by  them  has 
always  been  honesty,  bravery  and  kindness 
from  the  Du  Pont  family  and  loyalty  and  love 
from  their  employees. 


164  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 

"Resolved:  That  we,  the  employees  of  the 
Firm  in  1902,  wish  to  record  the  fact  that  we 
appreciate  the  kindness  shown  to  us  by  the 
present  officials  and  members  of  the  Du  Pont 
family  in  thus  inviting  us  all  to  mingle  together 
in  the  celebration  of  this  to  them  a  Centennial 
Day  and  as  we  have  loved  and  been  faithful  to 
their  fathers  we  mean  to  do  the  same  for  the 
present  generation.'* 

At  the  end  of  the  little  ceremony,  Pierre 
Gentieu,  the  spokesman  of  the  Committee, 
said:  "Gentlemen  of  the  old  Firm,  who  have 
been  our  leaders  and  friends  for  so  many  years, 
we  are  sorry  that  you  are  leaving  us,  for  we  will 
miss  you."  And  turning  to  Coleman  du  Pont, 
*'What  the  new  Company  will  do  of  course  we 
do  not  know,  but  let  us  hope  that  after  one 
hundred  years  more  as  much  good  can  be  said 
of  them  as  is  said  to-day  of  the  Du  Ponts  for 
the  past  century." 


THE  END 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  A 

ON  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  WAR  AND  SPORT- 
ING POWDER  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

BY  E.  I.  DU  PONT 
1801 

(Translated  from  the  French) 

THE  high  price  of  labor,  and  that  of  raw  materials 
which  is  the  natural  consequence,  have  caused  till 
now  small  success  in  the  manufactures  of  the  United 
States. 

But  a  manufacture  in  which  nearly  all  the  work 
is  done  by  machinery,  which  would  use  foreign  raw 
material,  and  which  for  these  reasons  could  not  feel 
the  effects  of  the  high  price  of  national  industries, 
would  be  sure  of  complete  success.  It  would  also 
gain,  to  assure  its  profits,  the  cost  of  transportation 
and  the  commercial  charges  now  paid  by  European 
manufacturers. 

The  manufacture  of  gunpowder  has  all  these  ad- 
vantages; the  cost  of  labor,  even  in  America,  is  not 
one  sixth  of  its  price,  and  saltpetre,  the  only  raw 
material  in  its  composition  of  which  the  cost  is 
important,  comes  from  India  at  as  low  a  price  as  is 
paid  for  it  by  European  manufacturers. 

A  manufacture  of  this  kind  has  therefore  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  obstacles  which  will  for  a  long  time 
hinder  the  introduction  of  other  manufactures  into 
the  United  States.  It  can  count  on  a  high  price  and 
a  sure  market  for  its  product.  The  supplying  of  the 


168  APPENDIX 

Government  for  the  Navy,  for  the  Army,  and  for 
the  Forts  which  are  now  nearly  empty;  the  con- 
sumption of  a  race  of  hunters  living  largely  in  the 
forests;  the  commerce  of  the  West  Indies  and  that 
of  the  Indians  offer  to  it  outlets  twenty  times 
greater  than  would  be  necessary  for  the  most 
brilliant  success. 

There  are  already  in  the  United  States  two  or 
three  plants  which  make  bad  powder  at  great  ex- 
pense and  which  nevertheless  do  a  good  business. 
To  give  an  idea  of  the  incompetence  of  these  manu- 
facturers we  will  take  as  an  example  that  plant 
which  has  the  best  reputation  l  which  is  now  work- 
ing for  the  Government. 

The  Philadelphia  merchants  who  own  this  man- 
ufacture, nine  years  ago  brought  to  this  country  as 
manager  of  their  plant  a  Batavian  workman  who 
makes  their  powder  as  he  saw  it  made  in  his  own 
country  —  as  they  have  probably  made  it  in  that 
Dutch  Colony  for  fifty  years. 

They  use  saltpetre  from  India  of  an  infinitely 
better  quality  than  is  procurable  in  France,  but 
they  refine  it  so  badly,  they  use  it  while  it  is  still  so 
saturated  with  dampness  and  mother  liquor,  that 
even  were  their  powder  made  by  modern  processes 
it  would  have  about  half  the  power  of  that  made 
of  dry,  pure  saltpetre. 

They  work  four  mills  night  and  day,  while  with 
two  mills,  working  in  the  daytime  only,  their  out- 
put should  be  a  quarter  more  than  it  is. 

1  Probably  the  mills  at  Frankford,  Pennsylvania;  owned  by 
William  Lane  and  Stephen  Decatur. 


APPENDIX  169 

They  employ  sixteen  men;  they  would  need  but 
twelve  to  do  as  much  work  with  two  mills. 

They  grain  their  powder  by  crushing  it  in  a 
wooden  sieve  or  a  kind  of  basket  so  badly  arranged 
that  the  greater  part  is  reduced  to  dust  —  increas- 
ing the  cost  of  labor  and  the  loss  in  manufacture. 

This  graining,  so  badly  begun,  they  do  not  know 
how  to  finish,  and  they  have  not  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing true  Army  powder  even  for  the  Government  for 
which  they  work. 

Such  competitors  should  not  be  formidable  to  one 
who,  having  studied  this  manufacture  for  several 
years  in  the  powder  works  of  the  French  Govern- 
ment when  they  were  directed  by  M.  de  Lavoisier, 
can  add  to  the  extensive  knowledge  of  that  admin- 
istration the  important  modifications  which  have 
been  in  use  since  the  Revolution  and  which  have 
been  caused  in  the  making  of  powder  by  the  needs 
of  an  unprecedented  war. 

We  will  make  an  approximate  estimate  of  the 
annual  cost  and  production  of  such  an  establish- 
ment in  order  to  give  an  idea  of  the  profit  for  which 
it  would  be  reasonable  to  hope.  But  we  will  be  care- 
ful in  this  calculation  to  keep  the  cost  high  and  the 
profits  at  the  lowest  in  order  to  be  on  the  safe  side. 

We  will  take  as  a  standard  the  prices  existing  in 
times  of  peace  —  that  is  to  say,  those  existing  before 
the  present  war;  observing,  however,  that  even 
when  peace  is  reestablished  prices  will  not  be  so  low 
as  they  formerly  were  —  labor  will  be  higher  in 
Europe,  whereas  it  may  be  somewhat  lower  in 
America. 


170  APPENDIX 

We  will  look  next  into  the  circumstances  which 
may  aid  in  the  success  of  this  enterprise  and  the  ad- 
vantages offered  it  by  the  present  needs  of  the 
Government. 

A  plant  composed  of  only  one  stamping  mill  and 
one  wheel  mill  gives  an  output  of  eight  hundred 
pounds  of  powder  a  day,  which,  allowing  only  two 
hundred  working  days  in  a  year,  gives  an  annual 
output  of  160,000  Ibs. 

Before  the  war,  powder  imported  from  Holland, 
very  inferior  in  quality  to  the  French  powder,  sold 
in  America  at  Twenty-five  dollars  a  quintal. 

At  this  price  160,000  'ibs.  yield $40,000 

The  cost  of  manufacture  would  be 

120,000  Ibs.  saltpetre  @  10^  » .  .  .  $12,000.00 

20,000  Ibs.  sulphur  @  2£  l 400.00 

20,000  Ibs.  charcoal  @  lj£ 200.00 

160,000  Ibs. 

A  head  workman  @  $1.75 638.75 

4  upper  workmen  ©  $1.50  J 2,190.00 

12  workmen  ©  $1.25 6,387.50 

Director's  salary 2,000.00 

Loss  in  manufacture  and  inciden- 
tals s 4,183.75 

Annual  repairs  to  machinery 2,000.00     $30,000 

Profit $10,000 

1  The  price  of  saltpetre  imported  from  India  was  before  the 
war  6^  a  pound.  That  on  10^  which  we  have  here  given  for  re- 
fined saltpetre  is  certainly  exaggerated.  The  price  of  sulphur  is  in 
America  $1.50  instead  of  $2.00  a  quintal. 

2  The  workmen  are  estimated  here  at  25^  more  than  they  are 
paid  at  the  Philadelphia  plant,  where  they  work  one  night  in 
three. 

8  The  losses  in  manufacture  are  estimated  at  much  too  high 


APPENDIX  171 

And  in  this  estimate  we  give  the  same  price  to  all 
powders,  whereas  in  this  quantity  —  160,000  Ibs. 
—  there  is  always  a  proportion  of  choice  powder  l 
which  sells  at  a  much  higher  price  and  on  which  is 
the  principal  profit. 

We  have  used  as  the  base  of  our  calculation  the 
methods  employed  in  France  six  years  ago,  since 
when  there  has  been  discovered  a  better  and  quicker 
process  for  the  refining  of  saltpetre;  a  partly  success- 
ful attempt  has  been  made  to  substitute  for  the 
stamping  mill  a  new  method  by  which  a  better  grade 
of  powder  is  obtained  in  hah"  the  time  and  with  fewer 
men.  This  new  process  may  be  already  adopted  — 
if  a  remedy  has  been  found  for  the  danger  which  it 
seemed  to  involve.  There  has  recently  been  sug- 
gested in  France  a  machine  for  graining  powder  by 
which  one  man  can  do  the  work  of  ten  and  which, 
moreover,  markedly  diminishes  the  loss  in  manu- 
facture.2 

a  figure.  The  repairs  would  amount  to  almost  nothing  for  the 
first  years. 

1  Pottdre  (TO-ite. 

1  It  should  not  be  assumed  that  because  the  manufacture  of 
powder  has  been  perfected  in  France,  the  new  discoveries  will 
spread  rapidly  in  the  rest  of  Europe  and  that  the  manufacture  to 
be  established  in  the  United  States  on  the  new  methods  would 
have  no  real  advantage  over  others.  The  manufacture  of  powder 
in  France  scarcely  suffices  for  the  National  demand  and  the 
economy  introduced  by  the  new  methods  will  do  no  more  than 
compensate  them  for  the  difference  caused  by  the  high  price  of 
saltpetre.  The  manufacturers  of  England  and  Holland  having 
therefore  nothing  to  fear  from  competition  with  French  powder 
will  make  no  effort  to  build  new  machinery;  the  more  so  because 


172  APPENDIX 

It  seems  to  us,  then,  quite  proved  that  a  powder 
manufacture  established  in  America  would  have 
sufficient  advantages  even  if  after  the  present  war 
the  price  should  fall  to  its  former  rate. 

But  it  is  certain  that  one  of  the  effects  of  this  war 
will  be  a  general  increase  in  the  price  of  labor  in 
Europe  and  especially  in  Holland,  because  of  the 
Revolution  —  and  that  in  consequence  imported 
powders  will  increase  in  value,  which  will  be  for  the 
advantage  of  our  enterprise. 

The  war  has  compelled  the  United  States  to  de- 
velop a  prudent  strength,  to  build  fortresses  for  the 
defence  of  her  ports  and  her  frontiers.  The  Govern- 
ment cannot  depend  on  foreign  countries  to  supply 
powder  for  the  forts,  for  the  artillery,  for  the  Navy, 

in  manufacture  exposed  to  such  great  risks  one  is  slow  to  experi- 
ment. The  horrible  accident  at  the  powder  works  at  Grenoble  will 
for  a  long  time  be  a  bugbear  to  those  who  would  be  tempted  to 
imitate  them  and  who  have  not  sufficient  knowledge  to  foresee 
results. 

Except  in  France  the  manufacture  of  powder  is  left  to  private 
manufacturers.  At  the  time  of  the  war  of  1764,  the  best  powder 
was  made  by  the  English,  and  this  superiority  lasted  long,  but 
the  Government  of  France  having,  under  the  ministry  of  M. 
Turgot,  formed  a  school  for  the  purpose  and  confided  its  admin- 
istration to  very  capable  men,  the  manufacture  became  so  im- 
proved that  the  powder  was  superior  to  that  made  in  all  the  rest 
of  Europe  and  has  continued  so.  Other  countries  have  profited  so 
little  by  the  improvements  made  in  France  that,  although  for 
nearly  twenty-five  years  French  plants  have  been  so  constructed 
that  in  case  of  accidents  the  fire  will  not  spread,  this  wise  pre- 
caution is  not  copied  and  the  new  plant  in  Philadelphia  is  so 
arranged  that  if  there  were  an  explosion  the  whole  plant  would 
be  lost. 


APPENDIX  173 

it  must  have  a  manufacture  established  in  America 
and  will  doubtless  give  all  necessary  encouragements 
to  such  an  enterprise.  The  first  of  these  should  be  a 
duty  of  15  per  cent  on  the  importation  of  foreign 
powder,  an  assistance  usually  given  in  America  to 
all  kinds  of  manufacture. 

From  these  facts  we  may  calculate  that  the  in- 
crease in  the  cost  of  labor  in  Europe  and  the  duty  on 
imports,  of  which  we  spoke,  would  raise  the  price  of 
imported  powder  to  at  least  30^  a  pound  instead  of 
the  25 i  which  it  has  been.  This  small  increase  would 
give  an  annual  profit  of  $20,000. 

If  the  Naval  war  continues  or  is  renewed,  the 
profits  of  the  enterprise  would  be  infinitely  greater. 
The  price  of  powder  in  the  United  States  in  times  of 
war  is  from  50^  to  75 jf  a  pound.  The  Government  is 
now  paying  47^. 

Taking  as  example  this  last,   and  lowest  price  —  the 
160,000  Ibs.  of  powder  would  yield $75,000 

The  cost  of  manufacture  would  be 
120,000  Ibs.  saltpetre  @  20?f 

(because  of  the  war)    $24,000.00 

Sulphur  and  charcoal 600.00 

Labor 9,216.25 

Director's  salary 2,000.00 

Losses  in  manufacture 7,183.75 

Annual  repairs 2,000.00      45,000 

Profit $30,000 

In  order  to  simplify  these  calculations  we  have 
considered  only  the  output  of  a  single  unit  of  mills, 
although  most  of  the  old  plants  have  two  or  three; 
the  needs  of  the  Government  and  those  of  com- 


174  APPENDIX 

merce  offer  boundless  opportunities  to  such  an  en- 
terprise and  it  would  be  possible  to  double  or  triple 
the  output  by  the  construction  of  one  or  two  new 
units. 

The  equipment  of  the  forts  alone  requires  two 
million  pounds  of  powder.  The  Government,  by  the 
frigates  which  it  has  sent  to  India,  has  assured  the 
necessary  supply  of  saltpetre,  of  which  it  now  has 
800,000  Ibs. 

The  manufacture  of  these  two  million  pounds  of 
powder  would  be  sufficient  reason  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  manufacture,  even  if  it  were  to  have 
no  other  market,  since  this  quantity  would  employ 
a  plant  of  two  units  for  several  years  and  would 
alone,  by  the  lowest  possible  estimate,  assure  a 
profit  of  more  than  $125,000. 


APPENDIX  B 

(Translated  from  the  French) 

ARTICLES  of  Incorporation  for  the  Establishment 
of  a  Manufacture  of  military  and  sporting  powder 
in  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  undersigned  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  Pere  et 
Fils  et  O  of  New  York  —  Bidermann  —  Catoire, 
Duquesnoy  et  Cie  —  and  Eleuthere  Irenee  du 
Pont,  intending  to  establish  a  manufacture  of  mili- 
tary and  sporting  powder  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  have  formed  a  Corporation  for  that  estab- 
lishment and  have  drawn  up  the  following  articles: 

ARTICLE  1 

The  capital  of  the  Company  shall  be  thirty-six 
thousand  dollars,  in  eighteen  shares  of  two  thousand 
dollars  each. 

ARTICLE  2 
The  capital  will  be  subscribed  by 

Bidermann  for  one  share one  share 

Catoire,  Duquesnoy  et  Comp one  share 

Necker  —  Germany one  share 

Archd  McCall \one  s]^re 

\  one  share 

Peter  Bauduy {  one  share 

(  one  share 

Du  Pont  de  Nemours  Pere  et  fils  et  Cie  of 
New  York twelve  shares 


176  APPENDIX 

ARTICLE  3 
Each  share  shall  pay  an  interest  of  six  per  cent. 

ARTICLE  4 

Citizen  E.  I.  du  Pont  is  entrusted  with  the  con- 
struction of  the  mills  and  the  management  of  the 
business,  he  will  give  to  it  his  whole  attention  fcr 
which  he  will  be  allowed  a  yearly  salary  of  eighteen 
hundred  dollars. 

ARTICLE  5 

The  constructions  necessary  for  the  manufacture 
shall  be  completed  during  the  year  1801  and  the 
first  months  of  the  following  year,  so  that  the  mill 
may  be  in  operation  in  the  spring  of  1802. 

ARTICLE  6 

There  shall  be  made  every  year,  beginning  at  the 
end  of  December,  1803,  an  Inventory  giving  the 
value  of  the  property  and  the  product  at  the  market 
price.  Any  sum  in  excess  of  the  original  capital  shall, 
after  the  interests  have  been  paid,  be  considered 
profit.  The  Company  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  Pere  et 
Fils  et  Cie  of  New  York,  the  principal  shareholder, 
shall  instruct  one  of  its  members  or  an  accredited 
representative  to  assist  at  the  making  of  this 
Inventory. 

ARTICLE  7 

The  profits  or  losses,  should  there  be  any,  shall  IDC 
divided  in  the  following  proportions:  Eighteen 


APPENDIX  177 

parts  to  the  shareholders,  nine  to  the  director  of  the 
business,  as  his  share  in  the  industry  that  he  is  to 
establish,  and  three  to  l  one  of  the  originators 

of  the  plan  for  this  manufacture. 

ARTICLE  8 

If  it  should  be  unnecessary  to  dispose  of  the  three 
shares  as  indicated  in  the  preceding  article,  they 
shall  be  suppressed. 

ARTICLE  9 

The  Director  of  the  manufacture  and  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Company  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
Pere  et  fils  et  Cie  shall  decide  each  year  after  mak- 
ing the  Inventory,  what  proportion  of  the  profits 
shall  be  divided  among  the  shareholders. 

ARTICLE  10 

For  those  shareholders  who  live  in  France,  the 
interest  and  dividends  will  be  paid  in  Paris  by  what- 
ever firm  corresponds  with  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
Pere  et  Fils  et  Cie  of  New  York. 

ARTICLE  11 

The  Director  of  the  manufacture  shall  keep  his 
books  by  the  same  methods  as  those  established 
in  France  by  the  Administration  des  Poudres  et 
Salpetres. 

ARTICLE  .  12 

In  the  event  of  the  death  of  the  Director,  the 
Company  Du  Pont  de  Nemours  Pere  et  Fils  et 

1  Col.  Toussard. 


178  APPENDIX 

Cie  is  authorized  to  settle  his  interests  in  the  manu- 
facture, and  to  name  his  successor;  and  to  super- 
vise such  adjustments  as  may  be  necessary  under 
any  circumstances  that  have  not  been  provided  for 
in  this  agreement. 

ARTICLE  13 

The  Corporation  formed  by  this  agreement  shall 
cease  to  exist  after  the  first  of  January,  1810. 

ARTICLE  14 

Each  of  the  shareholders  shall  declare  before  the 
first  of  January,  1809,  whether  he  wishes  to  con- 
tinue the  Corporation  or  to  retire. 

ARTICLE  15 

If  two  thirds  or  more  of  the  shareholders  agree  to 
renew  the  Corporation,  those  who  do  not  wish  to 
continue  shall  be  reimbursed  for  their  share  of  the 
capital  and  profits  in  accordance  with  the  Inventory 
of  December  31,  1809;  the  payments  to  be  made  in 
three  equal  parts,  at  three,  six  and  nine  months 
from  the  date  of  their  resignation  from  the  Corpora- 
tion, with  interest  at  six  per  cent. 

ARTICLE  16 

If  two  thirds  of  the  shareholders  refuse  to  con- 
tinue, Citizen  E.  I.  du  Pont  shall  arrange  the  liqui- 
dation of  the  Corporation  in  accordance  with  the 
stipulations  in  the  preceding  Article. 


APPENDIX  179 

ABTICLE  17 

In  the  event  provided  for  by  Articles  15  and  16, 
the  Inventory  of  the  manufacture  for  December  31, 
1809,  shall  be  made  by  experts  chosen  by  the  two 
thirds  who  shall  if  necessary  select  one  of  their 
number  as  arbitrator. 

ARTICLE  18  AND  LAST 

The  present  Articles  of  Incorporation  shall  be  a 
binding  agreement  with  each  of  the  shareholders, 
and  therefore  a  certified  copy  shall  be  given  to  each 
one  of  them. 

Paris,  I  Flortal,  year  9.  April  21,  1801. 

(Signed)  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  FATHER,  SONS  & 
Co.  CATOIRE,  DUQTJESNOY  ET  COMP.  —  ARCHD 
McCALL  —  BlDERMANN  —  PETER  BAUDUT  —  E.  I. 
DU  PONT. 

Memorandum.  —  Since  the  signing  of  the  above 
agreement  Mr.  Peter  Bauduy  has  purchased  the 
two  shares  subscribed  for  by  Mr.  Archd  McCall. 

Philadelphia,  May  4,  1808. 

(Signed)        E.  I.  DU  PONT 

This  present  copy  has  been  carefully  examined 
and  compared  by  me,  Pierre  Etienne  Du  Ponceau, 
notary  public  for  the  Republic  of  Pennyslvania, 
duly  admitted  and  authorized,  a  resident  of  Phila- 
delphia, undersigned,  with  the  original  document 
brought  to  me  by  Mr.  E.  I.  du  Pont  in  order  that 


180  APPENDIX 

this  copy  should  be  made,  and  by  me  returned  to 
him,  as  agreed. 

Done  at  Philadelphia,  May  4,  1808 

(seal)  PETER  S.  Du  PONCEAU 

not.  pub. 

Authentication. 

OFFICE  OF  THE  CONSUL-GENERAL  OF  FRANCE  TO  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

We,  Louis-Auguste-Felix  de  Beaujour,  Member 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  Consul-General  of  France 
to  the  United  States;  Certify  that  the  signature  af- 
fixed to  the  above  document  with  the  seal  of  office  of 
the  Consul-General  is  that  of  Mr.  Peter  S.  Du  Pon- 
ceau, notary  public  in  this  city  of  Philadelphia,  and 
that  full  confidence  may  be  given  it  in  litigation  or 
otherwise. 

In  testimony  of  which  we  have  executed  these 
presents. 

Philadelphia,  May  6,  1808 

(seal)  (Signed)  BEAUJOUB 


APPENDIX  C 


STATEMENT  BY  P.  S.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS 
April  18,  1808 


Names  of  the  present  share- 
holders in  the  company  formed 
under  the  management  of  Du 
Pont  (de  Nemours)  Fere  et  Fils 
et  Compagnie,  and  the  number 
of  their  shares  in  that  Company. 


Shareholders 


Number  of  shares 
and  parts  of  shares  to 
be  given  them  in  the 
Manufacture  of  Pow- 
der lately  established 
at  Eleutherian  Mill, 
State  of  Delaware. 


Shares    Parts  of    V&  shares    Vo  share 
shares 


M.  Bidermann 13 


Mme.  de  Pusy  J 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours.       ( 
Mme.  de  Stael  J 
M  de  Crillon 

P          .  .              1 
1          ..              1 
1 

\ 

Mme.  du  Pont  (de  N.) 
M.  Lescalier  

M.  Ochs  and  children 
M  Wischer 

.. 

M.  Forcard  Weiss.... 
M.  Reinhard  .  .  :  

I 

M.Hom.. 

i 

36 


12 


APPENDIX  D 

(E.  I.  du  Pant's  Manuscript) 

January  29,  1831 

DECOMPOSITION  OF  NITRATE  OF  SODA  BY  POTASH 
THE  Peruvian  Saltpetre,  or  nitrate  of  soda,  on 
which  our  experiments  have  been  made,  is  nearly 
pure,  not  containing  over  2  per  cent  of  marine  salt 
and  other  impurities. 

Pure  nitrate  of  soda  contains  63  parts  of  nitric 
acid,  and  T\\  of  soda 

The  componants  parts  of  nitrate  of  Potash  or 
saltpetre,  are  51  of  nitric  acid 
49  of  Potash 

100 

from  these  proportions  it  results  that  in  decom- 
posing nitrate  of  soda  by  potash,  it  would  take  62 
parts  of  pure  Potash  to  combine  with  63  parts  of 
nitric  acid  pr  hundred  pounds  of  nitrate  of  soda, 
which  would  produce  125  pounds  of  pure  saltpetre. 
In  our  experiments  the  saltpetre  has  exceeded  124 
Ib.  and  would  no  doubt  come  nearly  to  125  Ibs.  in 
operating  on  large  quantities. 

The  common  Potash  in  the  market  does  not  con- 
tain over  80  pr  cent  of  pure  Potash,  it  would  conse- 
quently require  nearly  78  Ib.  of  common  Potash  to 
furnish  the  62  Ib.  wanted  pr  hundred  pounds  of 
nitrate  of  soda.  In  our  experiments  we  have  used 
upwards  of  80,  but  we  had  an  excess  of  Potash. 


APPENDIX  183 

The  37  parts  of  soda  if  combined  with  carbonic 
acid  would  take  25  parts  of  acid  and  in  chrystallising 
would  absorb  115  parts  of  water,  which  would  fur- 
nish 177  pounds  of  chrystallised  carbonate  of  soda, 
this  would  be  the  case  if  the  Potash  would  furnish 
only  carbonic  acid,  but  the  common  Potash  con- 
tains about  7  p*  cent  of  Sulphuric  acid,  say  5?  for 
the  78  Ib  of  Potash,  which  5%  pounds  uniting  with 
5  pounds  of  soda  gives  10^  pounds  of  dry  sulphate 
of  soda  and  reduces  the  chrystallised  carbonate  of 
soda  to  154  Ib.;  but  we  have  allowed  only  128  Ib. 
because  there  is  also  a  small  proportion  of  Hydro- 
chloric acid  both  in  the  Potash  and  in  the  nitrate  of 
soda,  and  because  when  the  mother  waters  should 
become  thick  and  durty  it  would  be  best  to  evapo- 
rate them,  calcinate  the  proceeds  and  sell  it  as  dry 
soda,  than  to  push  the  operations  any  further  with 
the  view  of  obtaining  the  whole  in  chrystallised 
carbonate  of  soda. 

The  calcinated  soda  will  proceed  from  5  Ib.  com- 
bined with  Sulphuric  acid,  5  pounds  remaining  in 
the  mother  waters;  and  from  earthy  matters  and 
impurities,  and  would  exceed  the  12lb.  pr  cent  of 
nitrate  of  soda  which  have  been  calculated  upon. 

The  quantity  of  Chrystallised  Carbonate  of  soda 
which  is  yearly  imported  is  about  200  casks,  say 
120,000  Ib.,  which  sells  at  5  to  6  cents,  we  suppose 
that  128,000  Ib  could  sell  at  4  cents. 

If  the  operation  was  extended  to  more  than 
100,000  Ib.  of  nitrate  of  soda,  the  quantity  of  soda 
exceeding  128  Ib.  of  chrystallised  carbonate  would 
have  to  be  sold  in  a  dry  state,  say  62  Ib.  of  dry  car- 


184  APPENDIX 

bonate  of  soda  pr  hundred  pounds,  of  which  de- 
ducting 12  Ib.  for  what  will  be  extracted  of  the 
mother  waters,  leaves  50  Ib.  of  dry  carbonate  of 
soda;  we  say  52  as  it  would  not  be  made  perfectly 
dry;  we  have  estimated  it  at  5  cents,  it  being  worth 
more  than  Potash  for  Glass  or  soap  manufacturers. 
The  12  Ib.  of  calcinated  soda  extracted  of  the  sul- 
phate of  soda  and  mother  waters,  would  be  a  great 
deal  purer  than  the  common  Barrilla,  and  on  this 
account  has  been  estimated  at  3  cents  pr  pound. 


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APPENDIX  E 

E.  I.  DU  PONT  TO  HEZEKIAH  NILES,  Editor 
Niles*  Weekly  Register,  Baltimore 

August  29,  1827 

THE  amount  of  Gunpowder  manufactured  at  du 
Font's  mills  near  Wilmington  Delaware  has  been  of 
late  years  from  6  to  700,000  Ibs.  with  the  new  mills 
lately  added  to  the  establishment  the  quantity  man- 
ufactured this  year  will  be  upwards  of  800,000  Ibs. 

The  raw  material  annually  imported  for  manu- 
facturing this  quantity  of  Gunpowder  are  712,000 
Ibs.  of  crude  saltpetre  imported  from  the  East  Indies, 
and  94,000  Ibs.  of  Brimstone  from  france  or  Italy. 
The  number  of  persons  employed  at  the  factory 
are 

Overseers,  clerks  and  workmen 99 

Blacksmiths ^3 

Mill  wrights 8 

Carpenters 6 

Masons 5 

Til 
to  which  are  to  be  added  Coopers  for  making 

kegs ;  17 

Tin-men  for  canisters 2 

Tio 

and  also  Waggoners,  Shallop  men,  &c.,  &c. 

The  whole  amount  of  pounds  of  Gunpowder 
manufactured  at  du  Font's  mills  since  their  first 
establishment  in  1803  up  to  the  1st  of  June,  1827, 


APPENDIX  187 

has  been  9,718,438  Ibs.  When  this  manufacture  was 
first  erected  the  greatest  part  of  the  gunpowder  con- 
sumed in  the  United  States  was  imported  from 
England.  Had  the  above  quantity  continued  to  be 
imported,  the  average  cost  in  England  would  not 
have  been  less  than  21  cents  pr.  pound;  so  that  this 
establishment  alone  has  already  saved  to  the  nation 
upwards  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  which  have  been 
kept  at  home  to  circulate  among  ourselves,  instead 
of  being  paid  as  a  tribute  to  European  industry. 

The  encouragement  afforded  by  the  last  war,  had 
upon  Gunpowder  manufacturers  the  same  effect 
as  protecting  duties  would  have  upon  all  other 
branches  of  National  Industry;  Large  Capitals  were 
involved,  and  a  competition  created  which  not  only 
forced  the  manufacturers  to  improve  in  their  art 
but  at  the  same  time  reduced  the  price  of  the  article 
very  considerably,  the  cost  of  Imported  Gunpowder 
of  a  good  quality,  without  any  profit  to  the  mer- 
chant, is  at  present  from  26  to  30  cents  per  pound, 
while  american  powder  of  the  same  kind  sells  at 
16  &  20.  if  the  american  manufactures  had  not  been 
encouraged  there  would  still  be  a  few  in  the  country 
and  the  importers  would  still  have  it  in  their  power 
to  fix  the  price  in  the  market,  which  with  a  reason- 
able profit  to  themselves  could  not  now  be  less  than 
32  to  36  cents  per  pound;  previous  to  the  last  war 
the  regular  price  was  40  cents,  —  so  that  the  en- 
couragement given  and  the  competition  created, 
united  with  the  enterprise  and  skill  of  the  American 
manufacturers  have  reduced  the  price  of  the  article 
to  be  forever  cheaper  than  it  can  be  imported. 


188  APPENDIX 

It  is  however  to  be  observed  that  the  government 
by  allowing  the  drawback  of  duties  upon  Imported 
powder  encourages  the  importation  of  inferior  and 
of  damaged  Gunpowder,  which  as  it  could  not  sell 
in  Europe  continues  to  be  imported  here  to  be  re- 
exported  to  South  america,  and  thus  contribute  in 
part  to  the  supply  of  a  market  which  otherwise 
would  be  furnished  by  the  produce  of  our  own  manu- 
facturers. 

It  ought  also  to  be  noticed  that  the  importation 
of  Crude  Saltpetre,  one  of  the  principal  raw  ma- 
terials for  the  manufacture  of  Gunpowder,  is  taxed 
with  a  duty  of  15  pr  c1-  Saltpetre  is  not  manufac- 
tured in  this  country  in  time  of  peace,  and  should 
not  if  it  could  as  it  is  of  great  importance  to  keep  for 
time  of  war  all  that  the  country  may  contain.  The 
duty  on  crude  saltpetre  acts  consequently  only  as  a 
tax  on  Industry  and  as  an  obstacle  for  the  american 
manufacturer  to  meet  foreign  competition  in  foreign 
markets.  Crude  saltpetre  ought  to  be  imported  free 
of  duty  as  it  was  formerly,  but  the  tariff  of  1816 
subjected  it  to  a  duty  of  7|  pr.  ct.  which  in  1826  was 
increased  to  15  pr.  ct.  The  duty  of  3  cents  pr.  Ib. 
on  refined  saltpetre  which  was  laid  by  the  tariff  of 
1824  acts  on  the  contrary  as  an  encouragement  to 
Industry,  and  has  already  had  the  good  effect  of 
every  other  encouragement  on  domestic  manufac- 
tures. There  are  now  several  large  establishments 
for  refining  saltpetre  and  the  price  which  had  never 
been  previous  to  the  duty  less  than  10  cents  pr.  Ib. 
is  now  reduced  to  7£  pr.  pound. 


APPENDIX  F 

HENRY  DU  PONT  TO  AMOS  C.  BRINTON, 
WILMINGTON 

January  7,  1884 

E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  AND  Co.  started  their 
powder  works  on  the  Brandywine  in  1802,  —  the 
Upper  works,  on  the  site  of  the  first  Cotton  mill 
ever  built  in  the  United  States,  which  was  destroyed 
by  fire  some  time  before  our  people  came  to  Dela- 
ware. In  Brooks  l  history  of  cotton  manufacture  of 
the  United  States  it  is  claimed  that  the  first  mill  was 
built  at  Providence,  R.I.  This  is  not  the  case,  for  the 
parties  who  built  the  Providence  mill  came  to  Dela- 
ware to  see  this  Cotton  mill  on  the  Brandywine  be- 
fore commencing  theirs.  They  brought  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  Mr.  Canby,  and  I  understand  that 
Mr.  James  Canby  brought  them  out  to  see  the  mill. 
The  Woolen  mill  opposite  the  Upper  Powder 
works  was  started  by  Victor  du  Pont  in  1806.  The 
Hagley  Powder  works  were  established  by  E.  I.  du 
Pont  de  Nemours  and  Co.  in  1812,  on  the  site  of  the 
old  Iron  and  slitting  mill  of  Rumford  Dawes.  The 
Henry  Clay  Factory  was  built  in  1815.  The  Rokeby 
mill  was  built  by  Louis  McLane  and  George  B. 
Milligan,  I  cannot  say  in  what  year,  but  our  Com- 
pany bought  that  property  and  the  site  opposite, 
occupied  by  Simmes,  from  Louis  McLane  and 
1  Probably  Brooks.  Illegible  in  the  manuscript. 


190  APPENDIX 

George  B.  Milligan  in  1813.  The  Lower  Powder 
works  in  Brandywme  Hundred  were  built  on  our 
unoccupied  water  power  in  1847.  The  Simmes  and 
Rokeby  mills  were  erected  for  cotton  mills. 


APPENDIX  G 


E.  I.  DU  PONT  DE  NEMOURS  AND  COMPANY 
1802-1902 

PARTNERS  SUPERINTENDENTS 

1802  E.  I.  du  Pont 

Peter    Bauduy  —  resigned 

1815 
1815  E.  I.  du  Pont  —  1834  Alfred  V.  du  Pont 

Antoine  Bidermann  Henry  du  Pont 

1834  Antoine  Bidermann  —  re-      Alexis  I.  du  Pont 

signed  1837 
Alfred  Victor  du  Pont 
1837  Alfred   V.   du   Pont  — re-    E.  I.  du  Pont,  2d 

signed  1850 

Henry  du  Pont  Lammot  du  Pont 

Alexis  Irenee  du  Pont 
1851  Henry  du  Pont 
Alexis  I.  du  Pont 
Eleuthere  Irenee  du  Pont,  2d 


1857  Henry  du  Pont 

Alexis  I.  du  Pont  —  killed 
1857 

E.  I.  du  Pont,  2d 

Lammot  du  Pont 
1863  Henry  du  Pont 

E.  I.  du  Pont,  2d 

Lammot  du  Pont 

Eugene  du  Pont 
1874  Henry  du  Pont 

E.  I.  du  Pont,  2d  —  died 
1877 

Lammot  du  Pont 


Eugene  du  Pont 


F.  G.  du  Pont 


(Col.)  H.  A.  du  Pont 
William  du  Pont 


192 


APPENDIX 


Eugene  du  Pont 
Francis  G.  du  Pont 

1878  Henry  du  Pont 

Lammot   du   Pont  —  re- 
signed 1882 
Eugene  du  Pont 
Francis  G.  du  Pont 
Henry  A.  du  Pont 
William  du  Pont 

1882  Henry     du     Pont  — died 

1889 

Eugene  du  Pont 
Francis  G.  du  Pont 
Henry  A.  du  Pont 
William  du  Pont  —  re- 
signed 1889 

1889  Eugene  du  Pont 

Francis  G.  du  Pont 

Henry  A.  du  Pont 
Alexis  I.  du  Pont,  2d 
Charles  Irenee  du  Pont 
Alfred  Irenee  du  Pont 


Charles  I.  du  Pont 
Alfred  I.  du  Pont 


Pierre    S.    du    Pont 

from  1890  till  1899 

Henry  Belin  du  Pont 

—  died  1902 
Alexis  I.  du  Pont,  3d 
Eugene  du  Pont,  Jr. 
Francis  I.  du  Pont 
A.  Felix  du  Pont 


The    partnership    dissolved    and   a   corporation 
formed. 

STOCKHOLDERS 

Eugene  du  Pont,  President  —  died  1902 
Francis  G.  du  Pont,  Vice-President 
Henry  A.  du  Pont,  Vice-President 
Alexis  I.  du  Pont,  Vice-President 
Charles  I.  du  Pont,  Secretary  and  Treasurer 
Alfred  I.  du  Pont 


APPENDIX  H 

PRICES  OF  SALTPETRE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1804  .20  per  Ib.  Calcutta,  crude. 

1805  .20  &  21 

1806  .18 

1807  .16 

1808  .24-.30 


1809  .30-.38 

1810  .30-.36 

1811  .30 

1812  .30-.33 

1813  .32-.S8 

1814  .32-.3S 

1815  .25 

1816  .15-.18 

1817  .10-.16 

1818  .10 

1819  .08-.10 

1820  .07-.08 

1821  .06£-.07 

1822  .06f-.07 

1823  .06i-.07 

1824  .06  i 

1825  .06^ 

1826  .05-.05J 

1827  .05I-.06J 


Kentucky  &  Tenn. 


American  ports 

closed   to   British 
ships. 


"    War  with  Great  Bri- 
(Mammoth  Cave)      tain 

"  "          Treaty  of  peace  at 

Ghent. 


Calcutta,  crude 


Duty    of-  7J%    im- 


Duty   of    15%    im- 
posed. 


194 


APPENDIX 


1828  .07-.07I  Calcutta,  crude 

1829  .07'-.07f 

1830  .07-.07J 

1831  .08-.10-.07I   " 

1832  ,07| 

1833  .06f 

1834  .06| 

1835  .06 

1836  .05£-.06£     "     " 

1837  .06f-.06 


1838  .05* 

1839  .06f-.08J 

1840  .05f-.06£ 

1841  .06* 

1842  .05f 

1843  .05i-.06 

1844  .06  £-.07| 

1845  .06|-.05£ 

1846  .06-.05f 

1847  .06-.05i 

1848  .06J-.06f 
1849 

1850  .05f 

1851  .05i-.07| 

1852  .06|-.05J 

1853  .06£-.07£ 

1854  .06i-.08 

1855  .06f-.20-.16£ 

1856  .15-.07£-.09 

1857  .07f-.12-.07 

1858  .06£-.09 

1859  .07|-.11£-.07| 

1860  .081-.11| 

1861  .08J-.17-.12 


Rumors  of  European 


Peruvian  saltpetre 
—  nitrate  of  soda, 
.04. 


Nitrate  of  soda  .05. 
Crimean  War. 
Indian  Mutiny. 

European  war  May 
to  August. 

Civil  War  in  United 


APPENDIX 


195 


1862  .12-.15 

1863  .16-.17      " 

1864  .16-.25* 

1865  .23-.12i 

1866  .10 

1867  .09-.10 

1868  .07-.07* 

1869  .07|  (gold) 

1870  .08-.09  (gold) 

1871  .08f-.07f  (gold) 

1872  .06i-.09-.06  " 

1873  .07} 

1874  .06-.05J 

1875  .05* 

1876  .05-.07* 

1877  .06i-.08-.05  " 


1878  .06J 

1879  .07i-.05-.06J 


1880  .07 

1881  .051 

1882  .05J-.051 

1883  .04|-.05f 

1884  .04J-.05i 

1885  .04i-.05 

1886  .04i 

1887  .05 


Calcutta,  crude 


Nitrate  of  soda  .03- 
.06. 

Manufactured  salt- 
petre .17$. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .07*. 

End  of  CivU  War. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .03| 

Gold  at   150   "and 

upward." 
Franco-Prussian 

War. 
Nitrate  of  soda  .02J 

(gold). 
Duty  reduced  to  .01 

perlb. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .021. 

Manufactured  salt- 
petre .08. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .03. 
Tidal  wave  de- 
stroys store- 
houses in  Chili. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .031. 

Gold  at  par.  Peru 
and  Chili  at  war. 
Nitrate  .03J-.04J. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .08 1. 
Nitrate  of  soda  .02  J. 

Nitrate  of  soda  .02. 


Nitrate  of  soda  .01 J. 


196  APPENDIX 

1888  .04-.051 

1889  .051-.04A  Duty  taken  Qff 


1890  .04H 

1891  -03*  '  Nitrateofsoda..01?- 

1892  .Of  '  '«  «  m  7 

1893  .03f                                                     «  «  -jrj" 

1894  .03J                                                     «  «  Jl* 

1895  .04  «  «  '"^3 

1896  .OSA-.02JJ  (lowest)  «  «  '01I* 

1897  Du  Pont  Co.  m'f'g  saltpetre  "  "  'oil' 

1898  .03I-.03  ««  «  JJ| 

1899  .03-J—  .03^  «  «  «     '01i 

1900  Du  Pont  Co.  buying  large  quantities  of  muriate  of 

potash  for  the  manufacture  of  saltpetre  from 
nitrate  of  soda  "because  saltpetre  is  advancing  " 
Transvaal  War. 

1901  .031. 

1902  .03J-.03&. 


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